A Golden Drive Through Equestria: Golden Drive Arc
by Psyga315
Summary: Kelly Randall was a fan of Kamen Rider and had went to Comic Con dressed as Ryoma Sengoku. She bumps into a merchant who offers her the Banno Driver. She accepts and takes the belt. Little did she know that she would be transported to another world, full of multi colored humans. Now she must protect them from the Roidmudes, all while preventing the revived Banno from taking over.
1. Where The Hell Am I?

At first, I had no idea what to wear. Should I wear his signature scientist outfit or go with the silly summer outfit during the end game? Well, what would people recognize Ryoma Sengoku better as? That was what helped me decide my outfit as I went for a simple white lab coat with a green button shirt and brown khaki pants. I straightened out my black hair and got a friend of mine, real great barber, to give me a silver highlight to match Ryoma's hair.

Finally, I was ready for Comic Con. It wasn't easy getting a ticket, let me tell you. Game Theory was right. Line-ups _were_ long. Tickets were expensive too. However, I managed to pull through, made a few sacrifices in not buying a lot of the Drive merchandise, and save enough to buy myself a one-way ticket to paradise.

I realized that the only people who'd even recognize my outfit would be fellow Kamen Rider fans. No one who had worked on the shows would have come, so they wouldn't see me. Most others would just look at me and think I'm some generic mad scientist. Well… I _am_ dressed as a mad scientist. Generic though? … I'm getting ahead of myself now.

Hello, my name is Kelly Randall. Since around 2010, I have become a huge Kamen Rider fan. I guess I should probably explain what the show is. Long story short: pretty men become bug-eyed people and kick monster ass. The shows vary as the years go by, much like _Final Fantasy_ in a sense. Characters change, premises update, but all around, the idea is preserved: heroes who fight in the name of justice and freedom. I think it was because of Mitsuru Matsuoka, a J-Rock singer, that I became hooked onto the series. Even if he was in only two movies from one Kamen Rider show, he managed to pull off that black and red uniform really well… Looking back, I notice just how much I'm into the villains. Ankh with his flamboyant flare, Hayami with his good looks, Sora with his charismatic charm, Chase with those leather pants… ooooh, those leather pants…

But, if I had to pick favorites, it'd have to be Ryoma from _Kamen Rider Gaim_ … He combines the best aspects of those guys and does it in style... Well, except for the leather pants, but he makes up for it by being a cyborg... twice. Yeah, he's a backstabbing prick, but he's still an amusing guy to hang around with. I think that's why I dressed up as him. However, as I walked through the con, I slowly thought of what I wanted to do.

Nothing. There was absolutely nothing for me to do. Yeah, I could talk to some of the guys who created stuff like Steven Universe or Adventure Time, but I never had time to watch those shows, so all I'd know about it is "it's a show about a kid and some gems" or "it's a show about a kid and his dog". Maybe I could grab a few sneak peaks at the newest entries of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I mean, I've been keeping up with it since the beginning…

 **CRASH!**

I bumped into a guy. I fell onto the floor as I heard a "sorry!" from a boy. Well, that's one way to derail the train of thought. Now I'm worried about straightening up my jacket and making sure my hair didn't get messed up. I got up and dusted myself off. Thankfully, my clothes were intact. Still, some people have got to learn, right?

"Hey, watch it, okay?" I said. I didn't bark at him, however. I said it in the most polite tone I could muster. Well, as polite as a girl dressed as a mad scientist who got inconvenienced by a minor bump could be. I got to look at the guy who crashed into me. He had short brown hair, brown eyes, and from the looks of his outfit, I wasn't the only cross-dresser here. I glanced at his costume from the bottom up. He had black boots with red laces, black cargo pants, a gray, long sleeve shirt with a bullet proof vest over it, a red cloth belt with the symbol of a burning rose on it, and, the most eye-catching detail, a red cape. I first mistook it for a scarf, though it seemed rather hood-like. The boy nodded to me.

"Again, sorry." He said.

"The hell are you supposed to be? Little Red Riding Hood?" I asked him. He chuckled.

"Actually… Yeah. I'm Riding Hood. In a sense. You some sort of mad scientist?" He asked me.

"Yeah. The incredible Ryoma Sengoku!" I smiled.

"Ryoma… Is that your name? Or the guy you're dressed up as?" He asked me.

"The latter. So… what?" I looked at his outfit some more.

"What what?" He asked.

"Is there some sort of grimdark Little Red Riding Hood movie that's coming out soon?" I couldn't for the life of me get over the attempted gothic look. It's like if Tim Burton took a hatchet to that fable… Part of me worried that he _has_ and Johnny Depp is cast as the wolf.

"Huh? No. You heard of _RWBY_?" He asked me. RWBY… RWBY… RWBY… I sort of remembered it… but all I know of it was that someone who worked on the thing died. I shook my head. I figured it'd be too soon if I mentioned _what_ I know of it. "You should seriously watch it. It's great! Hey, look at this!" That's when he took out a freaking scythe. I leaped back at the sheer size of the scythe.

"THE HELL!?" I screamed.

"This is just one of the weapons seen in the show. It's also a gun." H-how can you fit a gun into a scythe!? How would that even work!? Then again, I'm a fan of a show that had axes that can become guns… My eyes looked at the scythe's blade. The metal on the blade looked shiny and sharp. Almost… real.

"Don't worry about that, m'dear. That prop is just a replica. It's not an actual weapon." I looked to see a man dressed in a gray business suit sitting by one of those cyan fold-out tables. He also wore a white fedora. A legit, honest to God fedora, not one of those tacky trilbies. It actually looked a bit familiar to me. Though, I guess I was just thinking about that badass white fedora from _Kamen Rider Double_ , a pretty cool detective-based Rider series. I actually got that pulp noir feeling from this guy though. Maybe it was his posture and the goatee, but I could have almost sworn I saw Sid, a dealer who was also from _Kamen Rider Gaim_. It didn't help that he seemed to be playing the role of a dealer, as I saw him sitting before a collection of various trinkets. Most of them were from things I recognize. A collection of Soul Gems from _Puella Magi Madoka Magica_ , wands from _Harry Potter,_ keys to various cars, each with the names on them, such as KITT or the General Lee, and even a Fire Flower from _Super Mario Brothers_. There were countless others, each looking surprisingly accurate to detail.

"Oh hey. This is Mr. Zoloto" The boy waved to him.

"Though, you may refer to me as Niko, if you wish." He said to me. He turned his attention to the boy. "Afternoon, Ross. What brings you here?" He asked.

"Oh, well, you know. The usual. Say, you should buy something from this guy. He has a lot of cool stuff. That's where I got Crescent Rose from." He tapped onto the red metal part of the scythe. "He also sold me this sweet rose necklace that fit my outfit perfectly!"

"And… _where_ is it, Ross?" Niko asked.

"Oh… That… Well, I left it in capable hands." Ross said. Niko placed his palm squarely onto his face.

"Goddamn it, Ross." He muttered. He took his face out of his palm and looked to me. "Well, do you want to buy something? I have something for you that will fit your character." He pointed to a Sengoku Driver- IT HAS DUKE'S FACEPLATE ON IT! AND IT'S THE LEMON LOCKSEED! "It's yours for free…" He said. I always wanted this when they announced it for Gaim Gaiden. I especially wanted to use both the Lemon Lockseed with its Energy counterpart, as I felt like that'd be super cool. I could have this cool, awesome toy for free, and I don't even had to go to any import markets to do so! I almost touched it when I noticed something else. It was simply the Drive Driver, but it was painted completely black… Is… No way… They don't even have this out yet! I'm sorry, but... MY WANT FOR THIS DRIVER IS FAR GREATER! I had to have it! There's no other way around it!

"On second thought…" I tried to keep my dignity intact. God only knows I'll embarrass myself in front of dozens by geeking out over an oversized belt buckle... and I'm in geek central for God's sake! "Is it okay if I take this for free instead? I'll probably grab the Sengoku Driver in the second-hand market." I asked him. I frowned as I looked toward the Sengoku Driver... maybe next time. He clicked with his tongue.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Well, I'll certainly let you have it without any demand for currency, but you won't have it for free." He handed me the black Drive Driver. It was here that I noticed a bit of an accent. It felt... not too redneck, but somewhere around Texan.

"Huh? The hell do you mean?" I said as Ross backed away from me. I placed the belt on my waist.

"Well, I believe an old friend of mine put it best." A red belt formed around my waist. Once the belt clicked into the other side of the belt, a flash of light blinded me as I could feel my body slow down to a crawl. It was only a matter of time before I completely froze. " _All_ things come with a price." It was the last thing I heard as I blacked out.

* * *

"Hey, get up!" I heard a voice as my eyes slightly opened up. I saw a girl with blonde, shoulder-length hair with a cowboy hat. In fact, her entire outfit could best be summed up as a cowgirl's sort of outfit with a white and green button shirt and a blue jeans-like skirt. Not to mention those cowboy boots. "Ah, good. Now you can start answering some questions, sugar cube." She told me. I began to think about if I was just kidnapped by Niko and brought over to his house.

Oh God, I'm gonna have to start practicing the banjos soon in order to duel them, am I?

"Huh? The hell are you talking about?" I reeked at the smell. It was a familiar smell, a mixture of hay and manure. I looked around and saw I was in a wooden building. Yep, I was at a barn… How the hell did I manage to get into a barn, I'll never know...

"Big Mac found you here after we heard a ruckus this mornin'. I'm just gonna ask ya one thing: what are ya doin' at our barn?" she asked.

"Look, I don't know! All I remember was that I was at Comic Con, I bought this sweet belt and…" That's when I looked at my waist. There it was, the black Drive Driver.

"Fancy belt buckle. Kind of big, dontcha think, sugar cube?" She asked me. I struggled to pull it off.

"Y-yeah. It's more than a buckle though." I yanked the Driver, even tried to pinch the sides to take off the belt, but it still was stuck onto my waist.

"Pretty stubborn one at that." The cowgirl smirked as she tried to pull it off too. "NGH!" She pulled, only to fall backwards and tumble into the hay. "Yeah, preeetty tight." She got out of the hay and fixed herself up. "Come on then, sugar cube. We have a lot to talk about." She said. I gulped and followed her to her house.

* * *

As I had predicted, her living room was pretty old-fashioned in terms of houses. It seemed to be like a wooden cabin. In fact most of everything was wood. The cupboards, the doors, the walls. The only things that were not wooden were the utilities like the sink and fridge, and even then, they looked like they dated back fifty years. I was sitting on the dining table as the girl set down a basket of food.

"Apple fritter?" The cowgirl picked up a fritter and offered it to me. While I'm a sucker for baked goods, a small thing wouldn't sate my hunger. Though... I _was_ hungry and it _did_ look scrumptious. I took the fritter and ate it.

"Mmm… Anything else?" I asked her.

"We made some apple pie the other day. Oh, and also some apple turnovers! We also have some leftover candy apples from Halloween if you're interested." I began to sense a pattern.

"… You know, I'm thinking of breakfast. I mean, it's morning, right? What do you have for cereal?" I asked.

"Oh, that's easy!" She went over to a cupboard and opened it up. When she returned, she held a box of: "Apple Jacks!" Alright. That does it. I'm stuck in one of _those_ families it seems.

"Yeah… Okay, I don't wish to be rude, but… does your family have some… thing for apples?" I asked.

"Of course we do! We own a family business of pickin' apples, after all." She said.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that _every_ thing you eat should be apples, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, but let's be honest, sugar cube, nothing beats a good ol' apple. Ever hear the saying of an apple a day keeps the doc away?" She said. I rolled my eyes.

"I have a name, you know. How'd you like if I just called you Applejack? Like the cereal?" I pointed to the cereal. That's when I noticed her snickering.

"Well, you're right on the dot." She wiped her tear and offered me her hand. "Name's Applejack." She said.

"… Seriously, that's your name?" I muttered. I shook my head and sighed. Eeeyup, I'm in _that_ family. Well, it's better than staying with the Sawyers, right? "My name's Kelly." I shook her hand.

"Nice to meetcha, Kelly. So, can ya tell me what the hay's goin' on?" she asked me.

"Well... first, do you know a Niko Zoloto?" I asked

"Nope. Name doesn't ring a bell." she said.

"Okay. Well, I'm out of ideas as to what the hell is going on. All I know is that I put on this belt, time slowed down, and I woke up here." I said. She stared at me for a bit before she sighed. Great, I sound like a crazy person. When I dressed up as the mad scientist, I wasn't aiming to be _just_ as mad.

"Well, I know a liar when I see one." My hands instantly slam on the table.

"That's all I know, swear to-!" And she placed her hand in front of my view.

"And _you_ are no liar. I trust ya, suga- I mean, Kelly. This _does_ raise some questions, though." Applejack said.

"I know, I know. I don't know all the answers though. I'm just as confused as you are." I sighed. I began to think that the freezing was just my imagination. I saw a big beefy orange-haired man enter the room. I didn't need Applejack to even tell me that's the Big Mac she told me about.

"Mornin'." Big Mac said. He looked to me. "What's goin' on?" He asked.

"Excuse me for a moment, Kel." Applejack got up and walked out of the kitchen and towards a room I couldn't see from my seat. Big Mac followed her. I inhaled. I knew that they're going to talk about something they don't want me to hear, so I snuck off of my chair and edged myself to the kitchen wall.

"Okay, so her name's Kelly and all she knows is that she got a belt. Everything else is a blur to her. I can feel like she's tellin' the truth, but I can't fully trust her yet." While I couldn't hear what Big Mac was saying, I did know that it was a question considering how Applejack responded. "It might be better to turn her in to the cops." I muffled myself to prevent my gasp from being heard. Great, not five minutes into this weird day and already I'm gonna get sent to jail for something I have no idea about. In that silence, I could hear some faint knocking. I saw a girl, no older than 10, with long red hair running to the door. I saw her leap up to peak at the eye hole, and I couldn't help but smile at how adorable she is. However, once she caught a glimpse of what was outside the door, she ran towards the room where Applejack was.

"Applejack! Applejack!" I raised an eyebrow at her yellowish skin when she ran back, but I didn't mention it out loud. "Some guys are at the door! They say they're looking for someone." She said.

"Huh?" Applejack cracked her knuckles and walked towards the door. I rushed back to my seat and luckily, I sat in time for her to pass into the kitchen. "Wait here, sugar cube." She walked to the door and opened it up. I disobeyed her orders and snuck off. Their room was modeled in a way where I could peak around the corner and hide behind the fridge. I saw three people standing on the porch. One wore a green army vest with a black shirt and black shorts, while the other two seemed to be dressed in white tuxedos. I began to wonder if _these_ guys were related to Mr. Zoloto.

"Hello there." The vested man said.

"What are you folks doin' here?" Applejack said.

"We've came looking for something. I have the feeling that it's here in this very house." He said.

"Is this something a girl with black hair? A little silver highlight to it as well?" She asked. The man chuckled.

"No. This something's a belt." As soon as he said that, my body tensed up. The Driver. He wants the Driver.

"Well, unfortunately for ya, it has the problem of being stuck onto someone. Someone who I ain't givin' to ya unless you tell me what the hay's goin' on." Applejack glared to the man. My heart raced. Only a certain group of people would ever want this Driver. The man nudged his head to the door as the two suited men barged in. "H-hey! What are ya doin'!?" Applejack tried to push them away, but they simply backhanded her.

"We're not entitled to tell you anything! What you need to know is that, unless you hand over the belt to us, people _will_ get hurt and possessions _will_ be stolen." He said as the two dragged out Big Mac and an old lady that… Wait, when the hell was green a color of skin? I looked to Big Mac and noticed that, despite the mass difference, the gangster easily overpowered him.

"Okay, that does it! We're callin' the cops on you!" Applejack got up, raised her leg up high and kicked their leader in the jaw. He reeled back while he held his jaw. He rubbed it a bit before he smiled.

"No… That won't be necessary." My body went completely numb as he waved his arm. Without ever seeing the flashy particles emerge, I have confirmed that these people were indeed Roidmudes, robotic doppelgangers with the ability to make people's perception of time slow down. Once the flash happened, I could feel the Slowdown happen again. And it seems I'm not the only one.

"W-what the?!" Applejack said as the leader walked up to her and grabbed her by the throat.

"That little number you did… I liked it. Your body… is perfect for my tastes." His body began to morph into a blur of red pixels before they settled on a new body: Applejack's. He tossed her as I saw her body fall in slow motion.

"Apple Bloom! Run!" She yelled. I look to see the little girl had begun to run off, though thanks to the heavy pressure, the Roidmude easily caught up to her and kicked her in the face, knocking her back. He laughed. "Apple Bloom!"

"Yes… These is indeed… the perfect legs…" He shifted back to his male form, though now with Applejack's legs. He compared his peach-color skin to Applejack's slightly orange skin. ... Yeah, _now_ is the time to start wondering about the skin colors of... wherever the hell I'm in. He screamed. "NO! THEY MISMATCH! You!" He pointed to Applejack. "You've made me imperfect! Now you must pay!" And with another shift of pixels, he transformed into someone I now recognize: The Iron Roidmude, a perfectionist who spent his time stealing aspects of different humans and combining them to make his own body perfect. The other two Roidmudes shed their human disguises too and showed their true form. As they did, I could see their numbers printed on their chests: 042 and 088, as well as their class of both Spider and Bat, respectively.

"Boss, our priority is the girl, not these guys." 042 said. The Iron Roidmude decked him in the head.

"Shut it! They must be punished for ruining my perfection!" He said. He nodded to 088 as he pointed his fingers to Applejack.

"Go! Now!" I could hear Applejack yell to me as she shed a tear and shut her eyes. That's when I noticed… My body wasn't being weighed down. I flexed my fingers. Yeah. I could move. I turned around and ran. I could hear the Iron Roidmude grunt.

"Change of plan! After her!" He said. I heard the flapping of wings. I ran as fast as I could.

* * *

I was able to lose the Roidmude in an acre of apple trees. I slumped to the ground to catch my breath. I winced as I thought of the family I left behind to be killed. I sat up, huddled my legs, and cried into them. I couldn't save them...

" **They are quite a piece of work, are they?** " I heard a voice from _somewhere_. A very familiar voice too. I looked around. When I remembered where I heard the voice from, my only conclusion was to look down onto my Driver.

There, I saw a golden frowning face with a big, long nose presented in LCD. I began to shudder as I knew this face. It was the face of Tenjuro Banno, inventor of the Roidmudes and enemy to both their kind and humankind. And right now, he's right on my waist.

" **They are my Magnum Opus. Perfect beings, don't you think?** " He said.

"They're going to murder innocent people!" I yelled.

" **Such is life.** " He chuckled. I tried again to take off the belt, though now with more aggression in my strength. " **Please, if that was possible, I would have taken myself off of you the moment you got here. Hate to say it, but you're stuck to me as much as I am stuck to you.** " I breathed in.

"I figured as such." I muttered. I already knew that they were after Banno, though.

" **Seems the Roidmudes want me back.** " I could hear 088's wings as they flapped. " **Fortunately, given the choice between you and the Roidmudes, I'd rather be stuck to you than spend the rest of my life back inside an iPad.** " Dead leaves crunched as I could hear the Roidmude grunt. " **You know how the Driver works, right?** " He said. A chill went up my spine.

"T-turn on the ignition. I know." I remembered how the Banno Driver worked in the show. It was less of a transformation device and more of a brainwashing device. This thing could use Roidmudes like puppets, even if their Core is destroyed and all that remains is their empty husk. I concluded that what would happen will be similar to that.

" **Good. If you could do that and let me transform, I'll see about getting the Roidmudes out of the way and maybe even save that family.** " He said. My hand hovered over the ignition. " **You better hurry.** " Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. The Roidmude looked for us. It was only a matter of time before he found us. Only a matter of time before that family is killed. I gulped. I had no other choice but to trust this madman.

"Alright… but you have to save them, alright?" I asked him.

" **Very well.** " My hand shook. I'd be trusting the lives of people I barely met to this monster. How would I know he'd be true to his word? He views practically everyone, even his so-called "Magnum Opuses", as nothing more than lab rats. How could I even trust him with _my_ life? " **What are you waiting for? _Start my engine_.** " Any second now, the Roidmude would have found me, and I don't think he was intent on taking me alive. However, it wasn't my life that made me decide to do what I did. I knew full well that Banno was a complete monster, but as I looked at the Driver, part of me felt that I could be able to save someone with this, even if it'd be Banno calling the shots. I touched the Ignition Key and turned it. " **Henshin…** " He muttered.

A bright yellow light emerged from the Driver. Yellow lightning bolts sparked out of the Driver and enveloped my body as a light blue barrier was formed around me. My body surged. I felt like each part of my skin was being pulled apart and electrocuted at the same time. The pain lasted for a moment before my body had changed. Now I had the under suit to my Rider form. This was followed shortly by the golden pieces of armor that gave my form the name of Gold Drive. They snapped onto me as one last flash of golden light emitted from the Driver.

That's when I felt my entire body become numb. I tried to lift up my arms and legs, but they didn't seem to respond. However, my body got up regardless. It didn't take me any time to know what was going on, especially after I threw my head back in Banno's laughter.

" **Yeah, this feels right…** " Banno said as my hand gripped. I knew it. He took over my body. God, this is gonna be confusing. I heard the Roidmude creep right behind me. He made a mad dash. All this while Banno just stood, chuckling. Idiot! Someone's gonna kill you! Move! Although I couldn't feel my body tense up, I braced myself for impact. Banno spun around and roundhouse kicked the Roidmude. It was sudden and loud, like a gunshot. The Roidmude fell over to the ground, sparking with the same yellow lightning that preceded my transformation, and exploded. His Core, represented by his number, floated up before it too exploded.

" **I've adapted to your body easier than I thought. Well, I might as well fulfill my end of the bargain, right?** " Banno said. He ran off at super speed.

* * *

I worried that in the time it took for us to get there, the family would have been killed already. Even though I only knew them for half an hour, I felt sorry for them. Maybe it was just because I wound up inadvertently involved them in this mess. However, I felt relieved when we arrived and saw that the family was alive. The Roidmudes were careless enough to leave the door wide open. However, I could see that 042 had just shot the old lady in the arm, with numerous screams heard among the family. He pointed his finger guns to her head. That's when Banno leaped up into the air upon entering the house and axe kicked him to the ground. As he landed, the Roidmude was forced in a kneeling position before he exploded. Banno stomped into the ground right as its core was about to fly off, crushing it on his heel. Banno looked to Iron and laughed.

" **Is this the best you've got against your creator? I thought I made you out of sterner stuff.** " Banno said.

"I'll show you!" Iron ran to Banno and tried to punch him, but Banno dodged out of the way and punched the Roidmude five times in the stomach at blurring speeds. Iron stumbled back as Banno punched one more time into his head. Iron fell back. He got up as his arms changed. He punched as one of his arms stretched out to the end of the hall. Banno grabbed it.

" **Heh.** " he pulled the Roidmude towards himself. He held his fist out as the Roidmude ran into it.

 **BLASH!**

His fist smashed through the Roidmude's chest and he held its Core in his hand. Iron writhed as Banno slowly crushed the core. When it was nothing but crushed dust, Banno retraced his arm and let the Roidmude fall. Its corpse had tiny bits of lightning springing from the open wound. It exploded when it landed as time returned to normal. Applejack rushed over to the elder.

"Granny!" Banno walked away before I could even know if she would be okay or not.

* * *

When we were about a mile from the house, Banno stopped walking and laughed maniacally. It was at this moment that I realized that I have made a gross mistake.

" **Starting today, there will be a return! The return of Tenjuro Banno! Humanity will cower before my feet! Oppressors will fall before my might! And I will rule everything over with an iron fi-** " As he gloated, the Gold Drive suit disassembled. I could finally move my arms and legs again. I felt very cold when I regained them.

"Oh thank God!" I muttered.

" **Wh-what happened!? I was close to domination! What caused my transformation to give out?!** " Banno babbled. While I was indeed thankful for the sudden depower, it had _me_ wondering that too. Just what the hell happened? One minute, Banno was using my body, the next, he's back to being a belt.

"… Perhaps it's a technical glitch." I remarked how short my time was as Gold Drive, or rather, _Banno's_ time. I rested my index finger onto my chin. I tried to think of an idea, but I couldn't help but think of Applejack trying to revive her grandmother. I wondered where the hell her parents were. I shed a tear as I believed that her parents must have died.

I looked at the house. Like hell I was gonna leave the family orphaned. I took out my phone. Much to my relief, my cell had service. I called a simple, three digit number.

" _Hello, Nine-One-One?_ " The dispatcher asked.

"Hello, I wish to report of a mob breaking and entering a home. There's a grandmother who might be critically injured from their attack." I said.

" _Alright, we'll be there as soon as we can._ " The dispatcher said. As I hung up, I turned around and walked toward the house.

" **You're going back for them?** " Banno asked.

"Yeah. They saved our lives just now and you just returned the favor. Of _course_ I'll do my part." I said.

" **You know, I was going to take back what I thought of you, but now you've shown me that you are truly an idiot. That girl just said that she'll turn you in first chance she has.** " Banno said.

"So? We don't know the extent of what she meant." I thought back to what Applejack said. Maybe I jumped the gun when I thought that she was considering having me thrown in jail. She might have meant it in another way. "Whether she thinks we're criminals or victims, I'd rather be in the care of cops than have anyone risk their lives to cover our asses." I said. As I walked back into the house, I heard Banno say:

" **You're just as dumb as my son.** "

* * *

I entered the house as I saw Applejack preform CPR on her grandmother.

"I called for an ambulance. They'll arrive shortly." Applejack looked up to me and smiled.

"Thank you, Kelly." She said. I paused for a moment before I knelt down to her.

"And… maybe it's for the best if the authorities took me in. I have no idea what's going on and I have a feeling like there'll be more gangsters where that came from. The cops could probably protect me and maybe get to the bottom of what's going on." I said. Applejack hesitated, but she nodded soon after. Of course, that's part of the reason why I wanted to turn myself in. As I heard the sirens, I rested my mind, knowing that I'll finally answer questions that had been searing in my head since I first got here:

What the hell is Banno doing on my belt? Where did the Roidmudes come from, especially since the ones Banno fought were dead to begin with? Who names their kid Applejack? Who the hell was that Zoloto guy? And perhaps the most important question of all: where the hell am I?


	2. How Do I Keep Banno In Check?

Applejack and I waited in the hospital's emergency room, though for different reasons. By the time the ambulance got here, Applejack's grandmother went under and we feared the worst. I was there mainly for moral support, as Big Mac was busy taking care of Apple Bloom. However, there was another reason. True to what Applejack said, she arranged for the police to escort me out once we got word on her grandma's condition.

I looked over to see the officer that'd be taking me in. He seemed to be an old man, somewhere in his sixties, possibly seventies, with gray greased back hair. Over his police uniform was a dirty, ragged sheepskin jacket. I noted the blue skin. All these colored skins made me think I'm in Springfield, or at least a variant of it. Looking at him, though, I felt some sense of security. In a way, he reminds me of Jun, the Chief of the Special Crimes Division in _Kamen Rider Drive_. Maybe it's because I just wanted him to break out a phone and show us our fortunes.

Banno, surprisingly enough, chose to be silent for the next few hours instead of gloating like he'd usually do. Guess it's because he doesn't want unwanted attention when it's pretty clear he has limited power. … Limited… I thought back to the fight and how Gold Drive was depowered in under a few minutes. Then I thought further back to his defeat. Banno, reduced to a snivelling coward begging for his own son not to kill him and how he utterly failed. I remembered as he was smashed into tiny pieces.

I wasn't sure if this Banno was the Banno I saw get destroyed, or how he managed to survive if he did. Maybe those guys on the image boards were right and he used that girl he healed as a backup drive. … Remind me to never let him digitize people as a safety precaution. Perhaps the depowering was a result of said destruction. Before I could dwell further on the subject, the doctor stepped out.

"It's a miracle, I gotta admit." He muttered.

"Huh?" Applejack asked.

"She was shot in the arm at a close range. Any other time, this would most surely be fatal or otherwise critical for someone her age, but for some reason, her body didn't quite react fast enough to the wound and so we were able to extract the bullet and patch her up before it got worse." He said.

"So you mean…" Applejack asked.

"Yes. Your grandmother is going to be fine. She'll be out of the hospital before Monday." He said. Applejack smiled.

"Oh Thank God…" Applejack began to shed some tears as she quickly wiped them away. As the doctor left, Applejack calmed down and gave me an intense stare. "I'm startin' to think I know _how_ Granny managed to survive. That… _thing_ those robots did. Where we couldn't move at all?" She said.

"Look, I don't know anything about-" I said before Applejack stomped her foot.

"BULLCRAP! You _know_ something about them, didn't ya? I saw it in your eyes when they came over! And what about that gold dude? Awfully convenient for him to appear soon after ya left." She said. She didn't have to hear me stammer to know that she had caught me, as I felt myself sweat.

"Well… It _is_ convenient…" She just glared at me.

"With that _same_ belt?" Applejack said. I backed up and began to stammer. Damn, she got me with the one thing that most of us Rider fans considered a plot hole in Drive. That's when the police officer got up.

"Hey, I think it's time for us to go. I mean, this _was_ the condition, right? You stay until you hear word of Granny's status?" He asked.

"Y-yeah." I said.

"We'll take it from here, young lady." He turned his head to Applejack. "If we find out anything about these… robots… You will be the first to know." He got up and walked off, taking me with him. I turned back and I saw her shoot a dirty look to me. I sighed as the cop took me away to the police station.

* * *

I sat at the interrogation room with the officer in front of me. In between us were a plate of donuts. The place was awfully silent. Though that was before he spoke up.

"Wanna know a little secret?" He asked me. I shrugged, though part of me felt like this secret was going to be big. Especially since he leaned in. Intrigued at what the secret could be, I leaned in too as he whispered. "We tend to put these donuts out, not for us, but for the perp." He said. I pulled away and rolled my eyes. "Hey! It's an honored tradition! This is how we test their guilt." He said. I sighed as I took a donut. "See? You're not guilty. If you _were_ , you'd hesitate."

"Well, only because you told me." I bit into the donut. For once, I ignored everything that happened around me as I just let the donut enter my mouth. I pressed my tongue up to press the chocolate against the roof of my mouth. I smeared it against the roof before I swallowed the rest. I then proceeded to lick the rest of the chocolate in my mouth…

But why the hell did it taste like a juniper berry? As I continued to lick, I tasted more of the chocolate. That's when I realized I wasn't tasting juniper, I was _smelling_ it. I looked to the old man and realized a pungent fragrance from him. It smelt like Axe, but with quite a dash of, as I said, juniper. I shrugged off the smell to continue my conversation. "So why? Why did you tell me?" I asked.

"Because I knew you were guilty when you were talking to that girl. I know a liar when he gets caught, and I know when someone has a lot to hide. And you have something to hide, don't you?" He asked me. I nodded. I looked to him.

"Yes. I do. Before we begin… I wanna just have you do something. You might find it strange, but trust me, it's important." I cleared my throat and spoke up. "Say Roidmude." I said. I waited for his response. If he were to ever mess up the pronunciation, then I might have some idea of what's going on in the police department.

"… Roidmude." And with that, _that_ idea was shattered. I sigh in relief, knowing _that_ is not a possibility. "Now, do you mind telling me _why_ I had to say that silly word?" He asked.

"I was just making sure." I said. That's when he raised an eyebrow.

"Wait… Are they the robots that girl was talking about?" He said. Crap. I didn't realize he could turn the question around until it was too late. However, before I was forced to answer, someone came into the room.

"Hey there." He said. He had spiked up dark blue hair and was wearing a police uniform as well. His skin was also blue. He looked to the old cop and crossed his arms. "Wind Rider, I'll admit, it's cute, but you can't be doing this anymore. You retired, remember?" He said.

"Oh! Soarin', I was just buttering her up for you." He chuckled as he got off his chair.

"Wind Rider, I _know_ you were trying to interrogate her." Soarin' simply glared to him, his eyebrows weren't furled like an angry person would, but rather just a simple annoyed look.

"I…" Wind Rider sighed. "Alright, fine." He walked off, but not before he turned around and glared at Soarin'. Okay, now _that_ was an angry glare. One so angry, it shattered any sense of protection I had from him. The idea of him being akin to Jun was long gone. Wind Rider left as Soarin' looked to me, not even knowing that Wind Rider shot a glare.

"Alright, now that he's gone, I have some questions to ask you." Soarin' said.

"… Sure, fire them away." I said.

"Well, for one…" He took out a folder and showed me a picture. It was me in in a lab coat, not unlike Ryoma Sengoku's… In fact, I was dressed exactly like Ryoma, complete with the silver highlight, but the only difference is that the person had a more muscular face, telling thanks to his Adam's Apple and a stubble on his square jaw, and, as I had guessed, differently colored skin. This time the skin was silver. He slammed his hands on the table and looked to me with shimmering eyes. "Are you the famous Professor Silverbolt?"

"W-what!?" I asked.

"You look like him! I've seen your show. You know, _Popular Science for Kids_?" He asked me.

"… You _do_ realize I'm a girl, right? And… you know…" I pinched my arm to show him my flesh colored flesh.

"Yeah! But in one of your experiments, you've proven that both a sex change potion _and_ a skin change potion could work! You must have disguised yourself after your grand trip!" He said.

"Grand… Look, I'm sure you're mistaken. I'm not this… Silverbolt guy. My name is Kelly Randell, I'm about five years younger than this guy, and I am a girl!" I pressed my hands up against the table and glared to him.

"… S… So you're _not_ Professor Silverbolt?" Soarin' frowned and I retracted back to my seat. I myself frowned. I looked at the picture of Silverbolt. Seemed it was a missing poster, though there didn't seem to be anything indicating a reward.

"No. She _is_." A tall woman with pink skin entered the room. She had multicolored hair. Part of it was sea green, another part was pink, and part of it was sky blue. She wore a yellow business coat with a purple shirt and purple pants and had a sun-styled badge on pinned her coat. "It was a weird trip she had. She must have used those potions to get out of a jam or something." She said.

"Oh hey, Principal Celestia! Long time no see!" Soarin' got up and his frown turned upside down.

"Soarin', I see you're still as handsome as ever. I remembered when you graduated from my school." Celestia smiled as she pinched Soarin's cheek. I retched and turned away.

"H-hey… Not in front of the perp…" Soarin' said.

"Right. Sorry." Celestia stood straight and looked to him. "So, any ideas of what to do?" Celestia asked.

"Well, I'm not sure. Another cop, one who wasn't even on duty, took the notes of what happened to her." Soarin' said.

"Look," I interjected, "long story short, I need protection. Gangsters are after me because I have something they want." I said.

"Oh, why didn't you say so in the first place!?" Soarin' said. He reached his arm over to me and grabbed me. "Alright! You're comin' with me. I'll put you on Soarin's signature 24/7 Witness Protection Program!" Soarin' said.

"… Um… Is it too late to ask for Wind Rider?" I sadly learned firsthand why it'd be hard to trust the quirky heroes.

"Sadly yes." Soarin' said. "Don't worry, you'll be fine." He said. Celestia stepped forward.

"Before you haul her off, I'd like a word with her." Celestia said.

"Sure thing! Anything for my favorite Principal!" Soarin' left the interrogation room as Celestia sat. The two of us stared at each other before I sighed.

"I'm not-" I tried to speak, but Celestia spoke up.

"Silverbolt. I know. Everyone knows that the potions he used in the show were just props. However, he _was_ a brilliant scientist. Perhaps the smartest person to ever teach at Crystal Prep. What I find weird is that he disappeared one day, and then a month or so later, someone who looks like him appears." Celestia said.

"Well, do you want the truth that you'll probably put me in a padded cell for or do you want me to be as vague as hell?" I asked.

"Vague will do. I don't want to know _every_ detail." She said. I took a moment to breathe before I talked.

"I'm not Silverbolt. I'm just dressed like him. One minute, I'm at… home, the next, I wake up in a barn house and was told that some guys wanted me for something. I can't explain the rest without making it sound unbelievable." I said. Celestia leaned forward and rested her head on her clasped hands. I backed my seat away as she let her pinkies hang and cross each other as she hid her mouth.

"Alright. That's all I needed to hear. Tell you what: I'm in need of a professor at my school. If you could agree to pretend that you're Professor Silverbolt, I'll help protect you from these people." Celestia said.

"How can you be so sure of that? I'm sure that Soarin' would be able to protect-" I asked, though Celestia interjected.

"You have some doubts with him. I can tell. And if your story is what you claim it to be, you won't be seeing any shelter anytime soon. Luckily for you, I can fix that." Celestia sat back. "My school's library doubles as a temporary housing unit for people like you who are without a home. We had a student come to our school with no prior transcripts. She just… appeared out of the blue. I simply let her in, because I feel like everyone needs a home. I feel like you need one too." Celestia got up and put a paper slip on the table. "Think about it, okay?" She walked away as Soarin' popped back in.

"Alright! Ready to begin the protection of your life!?" Soarin' asked.

"… Sure." I muttered.

* * *

The drive to Soarin's house consisted on nothing but gushing about how awesome Silverbolt was. Every now and then, he'd bring up a super cool feat he'd pull, or something he'd invent.

"Oh! And then there was that time you made some slime for that awesome Game Show! You know, Whoops?" He said.

"Uh… Yeah! Who could ever forget… Whoops…" I said.

"Yeah! You made some pretty cool observations about the slime, like how you could make it be like quicksand if you make a pool out of it, or how it's pretty much Play-Doh but… well… slimy!" He said.

"Yeah…" I figured that the best way to go about this was to just say yeah a lot.

"Oh! Could you take me on a tour of your place when you have the chance? I wanna see your newest inventions for myself!" He said.

"… Probably?" Crap. I don't even know where Silverbolt's place is. How would I be able to find it? I'll have to do some research when I'm alone. Luckily, before I even got to answer, Soarin's car pulled into a simple one-story house.

"Well, here we are! Welcome to your protection!" Soarin' said. As we got out of the car, I could hear a loud electric guitar playing in the garage. I bobbed my head a bit to the music as Soarin' tapped onto the garage door. "Hey! Guess who's comin' over to stay for a little while!" Soarin' said. The door slowly crawled up as I saw the person who was playing the guitar.

He had spiky blue hair, much like Soarin', but it was more of an electrical blue. His skin was pretty normal colored compared to most of the others. He had a black leather shirt with a red and white stripe streaking across his jacket. He had a white shirt. On it was a blue shield and a yellow lightning bolt. Other than him wearing jeans, that's all I noted of him. He took off the guitar and looked to me.

"Huh? Who's this?" He asked.

"Son, this is Professor Jetstorm Silverbolt. He is perhaps one of the smartest scientists around!" … Did Soarin' just compare a comic relief character in a science show for kids to someone akin to Albert Einstein? Come to think of it, Celestia also brought that comparison up... I massaged the temples of my head as his son stepped forward and offered me his hand.

"Hey, name's Flash." He said. After taking some close consideration, I shook his hand. My urge to quote the famous Queen song, but thankfully I resisted.

"I'm gonna get your room set up, alright? Flash, I'm gonna make dinner soon so you might head inside." Soarin' said.

"Alright, pops." Flash and Soarin' got into the house through the garage door. I sighed and sat on the folding chair that Flash was sitting on before.

" **So, you thought 001 was active?** " I jumped as Banno spoke. For a while, I actually forgot my waist had a mad scientist on it.

"Woah!" I replied back.

" **Heh heh… I caught you by surprise, it seems. You should be thankful I didn't speak up during that interrogation.** " Banno said.

"Well… I was _wondering_ why you weren't talking." I began to breathe.

" **I had the same suspicion you did and thought that 001 was** ** _also_** **manipulating the police's memory. However, I knew that wasn't the case. If it** ** _was_** **, Roidmudes everywhere would have rushed in the moment you were in that interrogation room. I'm not exactly sure which of the Roidmudes are active, who's leading them, and if they are doing the same things they were doing before.** " Banno said.

"Before… So they were destroyed before… _You_ were destroyed before." I said.

" **Yes. But now we live again!** " Banno let out a loud laugh before I muffled the face of the belt.

"Shush! So how… _how_ are you guys back?" I asked.

" **Well, it should be obvious. Someone repaired us.** " Banno said.

"But you guys were obliterated! There'd be no way for you to come back!" I said.

" **It's something that makes even** ** _me_** **curious. Whoever brought us back from utter destruction is someone who is more brilliant at science than I am. Someone I envy…** " Banno growled. The door opened as Soarin' entered.

"Well, dinner's ready! Come on in!" Soarin' said. Banno muted himself again as I walked into the room.

* * *

Dinner passed smoothly. Ironic considering how much of it was spent with me cast in the shadow of a supposedly wonderful scientist. Soarin' introduced me to my room in the attic. As I entered, I began to sneeze at the dust that had flown around.

"Oh! Whoops! I gotta clear the air!" Soarin' opened a window as the dust flew off into the night's breeze. "There we go! Couldn't let Professor Silverbolt sneeze himself to death, can we?" Soarin' asked. I remained silent. I had picked up the routine enough to know that every time he brings up a bizarre scientific detail, he'd- "You know, like you showed that one time in _Popular Science_?" bring up an episode of _Popular Science._ To which I respond with:

"Oh! Yeah. I remember. Last I checked, that was for people with _allergens_ to dust, right?" Some of the 'science' introduced in the show had some accurate truths.

"Oh no! You showed how sneezing could actually _kill_ in that one experiment where you used powdered fire!" _Some_ of the science introduced in that show it seemed.

"… Yeah." How the hell does someone akin to _Bill Nye the Science Guy_ wind up doing these special effects and pass them off as science? And how many people like Soarin' eat this crap up? Powder that you could apparently incinerate yourself with if you sneeze it? A potion that could change the pigment colors of skin I might buy, but most of this seems… crazy.

"Well, see you tomorrow! Oh! And if you have a new crazy idea, feel free to invent it!" Soarin' walked off. Does he even realize he's supposed to _protect_ me? I probably shouldn't be going Urkel when I have killer robotic body snatchers that could stop time out for my blood. I sighed and got to my window. I looked over at the starry sky.

" **This protection's not going to last forever, you know. They'll keep coming.** " Banno said.

"… I know." I said.

" **So you'd also know the only thing that could stop them, right?** " Banno asked. I bit my lip. As far as I know, I'm the only Rider in this town. Even if there's a slight chance that there's another Rider, my bond to Banno might make teaming up with them hard. _Especially_ if those Riders were Shinnosuke and Gou. However, as I looked to the Driver, I remembered just what Banno said.

" _ **Humanity will cower before my feet! Oppressors will fall before my might!**_ " I can't let that happen. I just can't.

"I'll find another way. I won't transform. Even if I could die, I'd rather let that happen then let you take the wheel again." I said.

" **Ah, I've seen you're committed to this. Are you prepared to face the consequences then?** " Banno asked.

"Like I said. If I am to die, I'll accept it." I said.

" **Heheheh. There's a difference between** ** _saying_** **you'll die and going through with it. Trust me, you'll feel it. Besides… I'm not talking about** ** _your_** **fate. Think closely about all this, or you may regret it.** " This was all Banno said before he shut himself off. As I looked at the Driver, I began to think of just how little I know about the place I'm in and just _how_ little protection I have.

I needed to know more about this place, and I realized that there was only one way to do so, and it _wasn't_ staying over at a fanboy's house. I took out a slip of paper from my pants pocket and read the number. With my phone out, I dialed the number and let it ring a few times before it clicked.

"Hello, Celestia? I think I'll take that job offer." I told her.

* * *

The school bell rang as I walked through the halls. Most of the students turned a blind eye to me as I straightened up my tie and read the directions towards my classroom. It was a simple enough deal. Teach kids basic science, live in library away from fanboy cop. Simple as pie.

" **So, how shall we demonstrate the difference between alternating currents and direct currents? I was considering purchasing a cattle prod and teaching the students first hand.** " Banno spoke up. I muffled the belt with the ends of my jacket.

"No! We're not using the students as test subjects!" I said to him.

" **You're just like Krim. All work and no fun.** " Banno muttered. I rushed to the class room to avoid any suspicion. Luckily for me, the only student in the class when I walked in was a girl with gray skin, long light blonde hair and… Were her eyes screwed up? Questions for later. She didn't seem to pay too much attention to me outside of a wave of her hand, so I had time to button up my shirt to hide the Banno Driver before the rest of the students rushed in.

I wasn't expecting the workload to be around fifty students, and I had to double check the attendance list to see just how many were gonna be in this class. And that's when I nearly broke down at the names. At first, I just passed off names like Applejack and Big Mac as nothing more than cute. Then I read more of their names.

First there was Rainbow Dash. A simple scan of the room helped me find who this student might be. A female with long rainbow colored hair with blue skin, who raced to the end of the room and hopped over her desk. Next was Pinkie Pie. I just scoped across the room and spotted a pink colored girl to associate the name. Frankly, the names turned into a cute little game. Rarity? Well, find the person that looks elegant as hell. Fluttershy? Gee, I wonder who that girl hiding her gaze behind her long pink hair is named.

Flas- Oh crap. I looked and saw Flash Sentry over at the front row and right next to him, Applejack. I gulped as Flash waved to me while Applejack just looked at me. No glare, no smile, just a stare. As I looked at the names and slowly spiraled into insanity with the simplistic names that no actual person would have, I heard an oomph and looked up as I saw a girl in a black leather jacket fall over. As she got up, I noticed how her hair was a mixture of red and yellow and her skin being of an orange color.

Reading the list, I notice two names, Sunny Glenway and Sunset Shimmer. Well, red, yellow, and orange seemed to be like the setting sun, so 'Sunset Shimmer' it is. She turned around to me and frowned.

"Teacher! Applejack tripped me!" I noticed as she was right next to Applejack, who turned her head towards both me and Sunset. My heart raced as I focused between addressing the situation and just beginning the class like nothing happened. When a few silent seconds passed, she spoke up again. "On purpose!"

"Did not!" Applejack screamed.

"Did too!" Sunset replied. My hands trembled as I fumbled between the attendance and a piece of chalk that I was going to use to write my name… or rather _Silverbolt_ 's name.

CRUNCH.

That sound. That delightful sound of a student crunching into a large jar of candy was enough to help divert the situation.

"You!" I pointed to him as I tried to pull off an elegant teacher's voice. I walked over to the student and noticed how comically overweight the person is. And bald. And… familiar. I hesitated a bit before I breathed in and took the jar from him. "You will have this at the end of the school day." God was my attempt at a British accent horrid. However, as I held the cylinder container containing popcorn, marshmallows, and other assorted snacks, the student barked out a "hey!" and strutted his head forward.

As I looked down at his jar, he looked down at my waist. As I was looking down, I saw that part of my jacket was still undone and a soft yellow glow coming from a chrome black belt could be seen. The moment I realized he was looking at Banno was the moment I recognized him. "Oooooon second thought…" I said and handed him back the jar. "Why don't you just… put it away when I do the lectures, okay?" I sheepishly said as I backed away from him. He looked daggers at me with a chuckle.

"Students! Back to your seats!" I shouted as I hurried back to my desk.

"B-but…" Sunset tried to protest.

"No buts! SIT!" I screeched. Any students who were busy being distracted, including Sunset and the fat man, stopped and looked at me. Sunset Shimmer quickly went to her seat without any fuss. I breathed in. "Good… Now, my name is Professor Silverbolt…" I went over to the chalkboard and wrote out the name. "And I have been reassigned to here from Crystal Prep because…" I struggled to think of an idea. Well, time to go for the simple one.

"Because I realized just how much better Canterlot High is, am I right?" I said. A majority of the students cheered and laughed. Well, save for three; the fat man, Sunset, and Applejack.

* * *

The rest of the class was simple. All I had to do was recite what I learned in _my_ high school science class and bam, I just finished an hour of class. Perhaps one day I'll let the TV be the teacher and show them an old episode of Bill Nye… Or whatever show they had on.

However, as I walked down the hall, Banno and I _had_ to talk to each other about what I saw.

"That was a Roidmude. The fat guy's a Roidmude." I muttered.

" **I figured as such. So, how will you handle this? Oh, right. I believe it involved being a dumb martyr.** " Banno said.

"I didn't expect a Roidmude to infiltrate the school, aright?" I said.

" **If you thought a Roidmude infiltrated the police force, then chances are they might have also set up operations elsewhere too. During my time in their captivity, I've learned just how many of them used their copy's job and identity to set up their schemes.** " Banno said.

"… True. Should have expected they'd pull tha-" And that's when Applejack slammed her hand against the locker and looked to me.

"Alright, sugar cube, you tell me what's goin' on right now!" Applejack said.

"Wah!" I jumped back. Great, now I have to deal with her.

"Who were you talkin' to?" Applejack asked.

"Uh… someone over Bluetooth." Applejack only furled her eyebrows.

"Really?" She tapped on the driver's LCD display as Banno grunted. "I can _see_ the belt's face."

" **Stop poking me! Do you know who I am?!** " Banno said. Applejack just shot up a look at me.

"See? You have something to hide, don't you?" Applejack said.

"I… Yes… No?" I stammered. That's when Banno began to speak.

" **I am the glorious Professor Banno! I'm not something to be poked!** " Banno said.

"Oh hey, the toy talks." Applejack said. She knelt over and viewed him at eye level.

" **T-Toy!?** "

"Those robots, what were they?" Applejack asked. Banno coughed a bit before he answered.

" **They are the Roidmudes, my inv-** " I began to muffle him.

"Y-yeah! They're Roidmudes, and they're deadly people that you have to avoid at all costs… eheh…" I chuckled.

"Well, ya seem to be doin' a piss poor job at that." Applejack pointed to behind me. I turned around and saw a Spider-type Roidmude behind us as students began to panic and run off. I heard more panicking on the other side of the hall as I turned to see a Cobra-type Roidmude coming to us as well.

"Look what we have here!" I turned again to see the fat man walk to us with his jar. "That little girl and her belt!" He said.

"Applejack, get away from here as fast as you can." I muttered.

"No way! I'm not goin' anywhere until I hear some answers!" She said.

"Idiot! Do you know what they can do?" I said.

"I know! I saw what they did to Granny!" Applejack said.

"You'll get your explanation in due time, this isn't something to gamble your life over!" I said as the Roidmudes closed in.

"This is going to be fun!" The fat man chuckled as he set down his jar. With a loud scream, he transformed into a stone monster: The Crush Roidmude. The three of them activated the Slowdown particles, freezing almost everyone in their place, Applejack included. The three Roidmudes then rushed to me as I punched the Spider-type in the face, followed closely by a roundhouse kick to the Cobra-type. When the Crush Roidmude ran to me, I ran up the lockers, bounced off of them, and kicked the Roidmude in the face. As I landed, I looked at my hands.

"Holy crap! How did I do that?" I muttered. The two minor Roidmudes ran and grabbed me as the Crush Roidmude got his hammer hands ready.

"Well, that was fun. Time to die!" He began to swing both of them towards me. My heart pounded. I closed my eyes as my legs began to kick up, using the Roidmude's rocky body as a support for myself to spring back. As I did a back flip, the two hammers hit the two Roidmudes instead. Not enough to crush them, but enough to bonk them together and let go of me. I landed on top of the Crush Roidmude and jumped off. I ran, grabbing Applejack's arm to take her with me.

"No! She's getting away!" Crush said. I could hear playful bonks as the Roidmudes bickered about what transpired.

* * *

The thing I began to notice about the Slowdowns is that they _do_ act in a radius. By the time me and Applejack got to the cafeteria, she was able to move her arms and legs like normal. I set her down as I sat down too. I breathed heavily as Applejack moved over next to me.

"So, anything else about these… Steroidos?" Applejack asked.

"Look, you're on a need to know basis!" I snapped at her, though Applejack just snapped back.

"Well, I guess I need to know now that those very monsters that hurt my Granny are stalking the schoolyard!" She said. I stayed silent. She got me there.

" **As I was saying before I was rudely quieted, the Roidmudes are my invention.** " Banno said.

"Oh, and did you add the part where they become killer robots?" She asked the belt.

" **Well, by adding, you mean adding in the negative emotions of humankind to the point where they become misanthropic of the species and vow to wipe them off the face of the Earth… Then yes. I did.** " Banno said. I pulled my hair out. Damn it, Banno! Why do you always have to dig your own grave?!

"And Professor Silverbolt, is she in on this too?" She asked.

" **No. She and I have entered a rather… unwilling partnership long after my invention.** " Banno said.

"Well, you're right about that." I muttered.

" **So, how's trying to die for a pointless cause working out for you?** " Banno asked.

"…" I had to think back to when I was almost a pancake. Had it not been for my sudden rush, I would have died right there. I shook and blinked. With each blink, I noticed my eyes getting wetter and wetter.

" **After a near-death experience like that, will you reconsider the whole 'not transforming' thing?** " Banno asked. I shook my head.

"I… can't…" I muttered.

"Transforming? What the hay is he on about?" Applejack asked.

" **Well, allow me to spell it out for you.** " Banno said as I could feel the Slowdown particles shake my body briefly. Applejack resumed being frozen. The previous few times this happened to her, I could hear her screaming. Now, while the groan could be heard as a shriek, there was no doubt that she was getting upset at this. Luckily, we were just a while away from a janitor's closet. I picked her up and hurriedly went into the closet. As I closed the door, I heard the Crush Roidmude talk with his minions.

"Scour the area! Leave no stone unturned!" He said. "In other words… do what we usually do!" With that, I heard several smashes.

"BANZAAAAI!" I heard several gunshots and various walls getting blown apart. By the time the screams got to me, I had to peak outside. The cafeteria was now in ruins as debris from the roof had come down. I saw most of the debris falling in slow motion onto the panicked students trying to run away from it. I scanned the area and noticed at least two of the students weren't so lucky and had their legs caught in some of the rubble. All while the Roidmudes roamed around and destroyed all in their path.

"Hey… What's going on?" Applejack asked me. I began to stammer as Banno spoke up.

" **Ah, such destruction, such chaos. I'm a bit sad that I didn't give them enough credit.** " Banno laughed. I shut the door and tried to muffle him again. His laughter stopped. " **But do you see now? If you don't transform, people will get hurt. People** ** _will_** **die.** " Banno said.

"…" As I saw the chaos and carnage unfold, all I could think of was how it was similar to the Global Freeze, an event in which all 108 Roidmudes stopped time across a fourth of the world and relentlessly murdered people left and right.

" **Right now, you're the** ** _only_** **one who can do this. Like it or not, you** ** _will_** **fight. Not because I say so, but because your martyr complex says so. Blood shall be on your hands, Kelly. Will you live with that guilt?** " He asked me. I looked to my hands. As soon as I heard the sound of a crying girl, I gripped my hand. I looked to Applejack. Although she was frozen, I could see the wavering in her pupils that she was scared.

"... No. I won't." I said.

" **Exactly what I needed to hear.** ** _Start my engine_** **!** " He said. I ran out of the closet and towards the Crush Roidmude.

"HEY!" I shouted to the Roidmude. He turned around and slammed his hands together.

"Alright! _Now_ it's a fight!" He said.

"Indeed it is. HENSHIN!" I said as I turned the Advance Ignition.

" **Henshin…** " Banno said as my body changed into Gold Drive's form. As the armor snapped on, I felt my body go numb as Banno took over. Banno leaped over onto an intact table and kicked Crush in the face. While he reeled back slightly, Crush was ready for a counter attack and slammed his hand on the table. As the table broke, Banno was launched into the air. He spun in the air a few times before he hit the ground. As the Crush Roidmude closed in, he threw a punch.

 **BANG!**

Metal clanged against solid rock. Banno could see that his fist hadn't even made a dent in the Roidmude's armor.

"Is that the best you can do, Banno?" He said as he readied his hammers for the final blow. Banno smirked as he turned his Advance Ignition. The circuitry on his body flared up and expelled a pulse of red and yellow light as he held up his hand. A blue-blade sword with a steering wheel attached to it flew to him. As he grabbed it, I felt my hand tingle a bit. That's when I noticed a bright, white light.

I noticed that, from inside the helmet, the blood-red visor had now shifted to a more neutral white color, almost like Drive's visor. Seemed I wasn't the only one who noticed it.

" **W-What happened?** " Banno said. It took a moment for me to notice the sword I was holding weighed me down. As the Crush Roidmude swung, I realized that I was back in control of my body and I turned the steering wheel part of the sword.

" **TURN!** "

I spun around and slashed the Roidmude, knocking him away. I flexed my muscles.

"Man, it's good to be behind the wheel." I said. I took a moment to look at the weapon I got. The Steering Sword. I wasn't surprised that Banno was able to summon it due to an ability known as Gold Conversion, something I actually wanted to try myself. I turned on the Advance Ignition as I heard the vrooming of three cars. This actually threw me off.

Gold Conversion was known to steal the weapons that Drive and his team uses… However, while he was able to also steal the Shift Cars, said team managed to fix them and ensure they didn't get stolen. How was I able to summon them, then? Banno said himself that the battle between him and Drive ensued, and so the Shift Cars wouldn't have been able to be summoned.

I recalled how Banno mentioned a scientist managed to bring him and the Roidmudes back… I would have wondered if they also managed to uncoat the Shift Cars, but that's when I felt my body go numb and I saw the visor go red again as Banno took one of the Shift Cars, a green spiky car. He placed it onto his Shift Brace as yellow lightning sparked all over the car. One of the Roidmudes ran for Banno, but he punched the Roidmude in the gut. I briefly saw his fist generate a golden aura of spikes before it impaled the Roidmude. As it stumbled back, he swiped another Shift Car, a purple one.

He held up his right hand and created a golden lance, only for it to change into a goldish-purple shuriken. He threw it at the Roidmude as it bisected him for a short moment before he exploded. His Core, 060, hovered a bit before it exploded. Banno looked to the rubble and saw a couple of people trapped underneath them.

" **Let me guess, you want me to save them, right?** " Banno asked.

"Yeah!" I said.

" **Hmm… I think I have an idea of what's going on. Here, let's test this out.** " Banno turned on the Advance Ignition. As Funky Spike and Midnight Shadow flew away, three more Shift Cars came. The red visor turned white again as I could feel my arms and legs. As if it was a soft ball being tossed to me, I tossed the Steering Sword away, grabbed the three Shift Cars and looked at them. A fire truck, a police car, and an ambulance.

" **I knew it. Every time we activate Gold Conversion, we switch spots.** " Banno said. I ran over to the rubble and swung my arm. I relied on the strength Gold Drive's original host, a Cobra-type, known for their superhuman strength, to knock the debris away. Sure enough, I was able to do so easily. The debris flew at a fast speed from my punch, only to slow down once it was a few inches away from me. I placed the Mad Doctor Shift Car into the brace. The circuit wheel flared up as I placed my right hand on the student's broken leg as a golden light bathed it. When the light died, the student slowly got up. I ran and did the same for the other student. As a Roidmude caught up to me, I replaced Mad Doctor with Justice Hunter. I turned around and fired a large golden energy ball that soon turned into a cage to trap the Roidmude in.

That's when I could feel my body start to change back. I could hear the systems shutting down. No! It can't end like this! We need to destroy the other Roidmudes! However, I noticed that our time transformed was much longer, by about two minutes.

Two minutes… That's when I developed a theory of my own.

"Take the wheel." I said as I turned on the Advance Ignition. Mad Doctor and Justice Hunter flew off and a red hand gun with a door fused to it came into my hands. My body went numb as the shutting down noise stopped. Banno came back on and fired at the Roidmude. He opened up the door and closed it in a second.

" **CHARGE!** "

With no time to waste, he slotted an orange car onto a hole made within the gun and aimed.

" **THE FINISHER! MAX FLARE! FULL THROTTLE!** " He fired a blast of hot fire towards the Roidmude. He was knocked away and exploded. Leaving its Core, 074, to roast in the flames and explode. He turned to the Crush Roidmude.

"You got some nerve killin' my bros like that!" Crush said.

" **And you got some nerve trying to hunt me down like a dog. I won't forgive you for that! And I have the feeling my host feels the same way. Take the wheel and take him out!** " Banno turned the Advance Ignition as the Steering Sword flew to me. I grabbed it and slotted the last Shift Car, Fire Braver, into the Shift Loading Panel located on the sword. I turned the steering wheel three times before I swung my sword.

" **TURN! TURN! U-TURN! THE FINISHER! FIRE BRAVER! FULL THROTTLE!** "

As I did, the golden energy overlapped my sword, creating the aura of an extension ladder with a metal claw at the end of it. I spun around multiple times as the ladder grabbed Crush. The metal hand squeezed onto the Roidmude and cracked his stone armor. As it tossed him, I stopped spinning and held up the Door Gun. With a pull of a trigger, I fired a large flaming beam to the Roidmude.

"I'M TOAST!" He screamed as he exploded. His core flew downwards as I fired at it next, destroying it instantly. As I sighed in relief, I heard people chattering as time resumed.

"Look at him!"

"What is he?"

"A superhero in our midst?" Banno chuckled and held out his arms.

" **You may call me Gold Drive!** " He said. I could hear the shutting down noise again. I realized what it meant and I ran out of the cafeteria.

* * *

As I got as far from the school as I could, my transformation cancelled and I was back to myself.

"I knew it." I muttered.

" **Knew what?** " Banno asked.

"Our time as Gold Drive seems to have been limited. I'm not sure yet if it's because of any programming glitch or if it's intended. I might have to guess the former due to your ability to last longer in…" I caught myself before I said show. I wasn't sure how he'd react if I told him that I saw him on a TV show and that's how I managed to know about the Roidmudes.

" **Yes. I think it's due to that. I was practically smashed into tiny pieces. There'd be no way I could be repaired properly after that.** " Banno said.

"There's a silver lining, Banno. When we use Gold Conversion, we reset the time allotted and fight for an extended period of time." I said.

" **And that's where the problem lies. When I copied Krim's data for construction of the Gold Driver, I think I cribbed some of his data regarding Type Tridoron. Couple that with the fact that I never used my Driver's transformation program on a conscious creature, and I have ended up with a bug that I haven't fixed.** " Banno said.

"Our ability to switch." I said.

" **And sadly, it's tied to our Gold Conversion. And that's our problem: In order to extend the time of us being Gold Drive and utilize our arsenal to the best of our ability, we have to constantly switch.** " Banno said.

"I… don't see it as a problem. We can work on it, but if we manage to perfect it, I think we can turn this glitch into our greatest tool." I said. I rubbed my head and massaged it. How the hell did I manage to become so smart now?

" **And how would we do that?** " Banno asked.

"I have an idea." I said. I walked away from the school.

"So. Gold Drive, eh, sugar cube?" Applejack's voice freaked me out as I jumped and fell onto the floor. I turned around as Applejack stomped on my leg. "Anything else you're hidin' from me, or is turnin' into some masked ne'er-do-well the last detail?" Applejack said.

" **No, Gold Drive is all that was left to discuss.** " Banno said. Applejack took her foot off my leg.

"Good. Since I'm on a need-to-know basis, any additional detail you have or 'conveniently' remember, I'll be the first to know, got it?" Applejack handed me a slip containing her number. "Oh, and if it helps, let the belt do the talkin'. He's a lot more honest than you'll ever be, sugar cube." With that, she walked off.

"W-we're not going to seriously let her know _everything_ , right?" I asked Banno.

" **To be frank, I don't see the point in keeping secrets, and that girl seems pretty unsusceptible to deception. Our choices are simple, we kill her and have our secrets die with her.** " Banno said.

"No! Not in a million years!" I said.

" ** _Or_** **we could piecemeal her bits of the truth, twist it to our liking, and lure her with half-truths. It's not deception, since we are telling her the truth.** " Banno said.

"…" I looked as Applejack walked away. From how far she was right now, it seemed that she didn't hear a single thing me and Banno spoke about. However, I had to admit. He's right. Eventually she's gonna get herself involved into the Roidmude conflict, and when that happens, she's going to need all the information she could get.

* * *

"That's the sixth Roidmude this week, sir." An old man with short, curly white hair spoke to a man with a goatee. The two were in the latter's office in the middle of the night. Standing in between the latter's desk were two of his henchmen, both dressed in white tuxedos as well.

"That Banno bastard…" The goatee man in a white tuxedo and a red shirt slammed his hands on the table. "He's gonna kill us all over again!"

"You think it's time to bring _him_ in?" An African American man wearing a cowboy outfit leaned back against the wall, his left leg pressed against it and arms crossed.

"Yeah… Yeah! Let _him_ handle the mess! Hang on…" The mob boss pulled out a drawer from his desk and took out a small silver necklace. On the necklace was the emblem of a rose flower. He pressed it up to his lips and whispered:

" _Thus kindly I scatter._ "

A gust of wind broke through in the office as the cowboy held his hat and the scientist's lab coat bellowed in the wind. The gang leader sat in his chair and smirked as a flurry of rose petals scattered about and summoned the person he wanted:

A boy cross-dressed as a character from a popular web show holding a red mechanical scythe. The two henchmen screamed and averted their eyes from them, giving out cries of "Grim Reaper!"

"Greetings, Grim Reaper." The leader said to him. The boy simply looked to the person.

"Who's my target this time?" Ross asked.


	3. Who Am I Attracted To?

Tonight was the first night I spent away from Soarin's house. I discussed with him about leaving, and to my surprise, he seemed pretty chill with it. You'd think if your own idol is leaving your house after you invited them to stay, you'd go pretty psychotic and force them to stay. I was worried that he'd force me to stay at his place after what happened with Crush earlier in the day.

However, when I brought the situation up to him, he said something about his superior telling him to overlook it. It didn't feel right to me that he, or anyone for that matter, would over look something as major as "I'm gonna sleep in the place that a robot attack happened at." Thankfully, the library provided a good place to test out the newly attained abilities of the Gold Drive system and allow me to take my mind off these concerns.

I stared at the table where it contained a collection of all the Shift Cars, Signal Bikes, and even weapons I was able to summon with Gold Conversion. Well… _almost_ all of them _._ For some reason, Lupin's stuff and the Shift Fruits Car were unable to be summoned. Also, the cars belonging to the future Drive, the Next Shift Cars, were absent, but I disregarded them due to… well… being from the future. I sat there and constantly took pictures of the collection. If there was _ever_ a chance I could go back home, I am _so_ posting this on my Facebook.

There were reasons for collecting them beyond testing the extent of the Gold Conversion. I always had a lingering thought in my head that if Banno and the Roidmudes are here, chances are that one of the other Riders might be here too. For a precaution, I used the Gold Conversion to summon the Shift Cars, including the ones that change types. If on some chance the other riders are here, they're definitely gonna be looking for the Shift Cars.

I'll admit, this seems like a villainous thing to do, hold the Shift Cars hostage and see if anyone shows up, but I'm not exactly sure where _anyone_ is. The only Roidmudes I managed to fight so far are ones I bump into or were actively looking for Banno. Chances are, I'll lure the other Riders by the latter method. Now what to say to them once they find me and the Shift Cars?

"Oh hey, sorry for kidnapping your cars, I just wanted you to come here so I can talk to you! Oh, don't mind the evil black-colored belt with the face of your sworn enemy on it, please?" I shudder to imagine what'd happen if _Gou_ of all Riders was the one to find me. Chase might be one to understand me, though I'm not sure how Shinnosuke would handle it with Krim.

I'm not even sure if they would even be there. I wonder if there were other people like me who bought whatever toy that Zoloto douche had for sale and got teleported here. Maybe _they_ are the Mach, Drive or Chaser I'll come across. I had multiple ideas of just _who_ or _what_ would also be in this world. So I decided to put the Shift Cars in one place for safe keeping. There was, however, a third reason I summoned them.

"Alright Banno, it's show time. Henshin." I turned on the ignition key and transformed into Gold Drive. Banno turned around and looked ahead. He saw that the library had been arrayed where walking in a straight line would be impossible. Bookshelves had been rotated, books had been piled on, and even the tables acted as make shift hurdles for him to overcome. He broke off into a stride. The first obstacle in his path was a table. He simply slid under the table. Turning the key, he summoned the Dimension Cab as I took over.

I quickly plug the cab into the brace and flung a portal in front of the bookshelf that was in my way. I jumped through and came out on the other side. I continued to run. I leaped over a small pile of books as I turned the key in mid-air. Fire Braver came to me as Banno tagged in. Taking out the cab and putting in the truck, he created a golden energy ladder-arm to vault himself over a larger pile of books and launched himself up onto the second floor of the library. Banno took a moment to breathe. We cleared _my_ portion of the obstacle course. Now it was _his_.

He turned the key as Midnight Shadow came to me. I grabbed it and in no time, I heard the sound of a tennis ball shooter humming as its familiar **PFOOT PFOOT PFOOT** sound rang out. I tossed several energy shurikens towards the balls, each of them puncturing the balls. I bobbed and weaved through the hail of tennis balls as I continued to attack them with my shurikens. I turned the key. For this course, Banno encouraged me to use my imagination for which Shift Car to use to stop the ball machine.

I chose one as it rolled over to Banno. He grabbed it and inspected the road roller.

" **Rolling Gravity?** " He asked. He chuckled and placed it into the Shift Brace. He created a golden version of the 10-Ton Weight and lobbed it towards the machine. As it dropped, it created a small bubble where the balls were slowed and began to drop to the ground. Banno ran over and shut off the machine, which was also slowly hovering. He counted down as he turned the key.

Another Shift Car and the Door Gun came to my hands. As I began to control my body, a stream of fire came blasting at my face. I took the Shift Car that he summoned and placed it into the gun with almost no idea of what it is I got. To my relief, the gun shot an arctic breeze that stopped the fire and froze both the lighter and the aerosol can that caused it. I yanked them off their strings for good measure. I turned the key as Hooking Wrecker came to me. Banno grabbed it and activated it. He created an energy hook to lasso himself off from the second floor and right onto the final portion of the obstacle course.

Before him was a table. On the table was a bunch of broccoli. He stood and looked at it. He tapped his foot and tapped his finger onto his wrist. He became idle for a moment before the transformation cancelled.

" **What the hell is this!?** " Banno asked me. I picked up the broccoli.

"The final portion of the test! You just had to pick up the broccoli!" I said.

" **What kind of test is that!? We were doing so well on the previous obstacles!** " Banno said.

"Yeah! They required us to use Shift Cars to fit the situation. However, there'll be times where we won't be able to use Shift Cars and we won't have time to discuss our battle plan. We just have to learn to trust each other's instincts and know what we want _without_ communicating them." I said.

" **Mmmph… You make a good point. Anyways, I think we should clean up before that teacher gets here.** " Banno said. I checked the time. 7:00 AM. Usually by this time, the teachers would have come to the school already, especially the one Banno's talking about. I checked the doors. They don't seem to be open, and no one seemed to be walking towards them. Highly strange considering the teacher works the library like she's the librarian of the place.

"Y-yeah. We should." I said. I transformed back as we hurried to clean the library. Having the ability to slow down time around you made doing chores a breeze.

* * *

Once we were done cleaning up, Celestia called me over to her office. No doubt she wanted to know about the disaster that happened yesterday, _especially_ when I saw Soarin' and an officer I didn't recognize in her office as well. I opened the door.

"You asked for me, Principal?" I asked her.

"Yes. I've called the police on a very important matter. One I have taken heavy concerns over." Welp, game over, man, game over. I look to Soarin' as he gave me a sheepish smile. I gulped as the other cop, a yellow skinned woman with orange hair that was spiked up to resemble a burning fire, took out a folder and laid it on Celestia's table. She opened up the folder and I sighed as it was _not_ of the destroyed cafeteria, but rather of a pink-skinned woman with purplish pink hair. The librarian.

"Celestia has filed a missing persons report on one Cheerilee, a teacher here at this school." She said.

"If you're going to ask me where I was, I was-" I tried to explain, but Soarin' held his hand up.

"Discussing about moving out. I filled Spitfire in on the details." He said.

"Don't worry. You're not here for questioning." Celestia said. "She was meant to take the kids of her art class out on a field trip to the art museum to see the newest sculpture exhibit that just opened. With her absence, I was considering asking _you_ to sub for her."

"W-what!? Me? But I just became a teacher yesterday!" I stuttered.

"I know. Your experience is like that of a substitute's. You'll fit in fine." Celestia said.

"But who will substitute _me_?" I asked. Celestia simply smiled.

"I asked my sister Luna to handle that." Celestia said. I looked at Celestia's sun-styled pin and I almost had half a mind to face palm as I realize just what her sister's name would entail. It's sad that 'Luna' is the most sensible name and it _still_ somehow fitted into a theme of sorts. "Your class is waiting for you out in the parking lot." She said.

"Well, guess I better get going…" As I turned around, that's when Spitfire spoke up.

"There _is_ something else I wish to discuss. Another missing person. A student of yours by the name of Sunny Glenway." I turn to look as Spitfire held a photograph of a bald man. The very same bald man I killed yesterday. I backed up into a wall as I saw it. "Care to tell me what happened with him? Or what the deal was with the damage in the cafeteria?" Spitfire asked.

"Well… I…" I closed my eyes. I almost expected Banno to bail me out. That's when I heard the door open. Suddenly, Spitfire's tone of voice changed.

"C-chief!" I opened my eyes.

"Spitfire, don't pester the professor with your interrogations. She has little to no involvement in the incident yesterday. Besides, I'm personally looking into the reports. I thought I told you and Soarin' this when we _first_ heard about the cafeteria incident." He said.

"W-well, you know how Spitfire is… She's pushy and determined to know the truth… and…" Soarin' leaned in to whisper to the chief. "She _never_ smiles." That's when he got elbowed in the back.

"I heard that!" Spitfire said. The chief sighed.

"Spitfire, I know how much you want to get to the bottom of this, but rest assured, I'll find this out myself. I don't need you or any member of the force getting into something you may not comprehend. I already had to excuse Wind Rider the other day." He said. That's when I had a gnawing sense of doubt in my head.

"Of course, my apologies, Mr. Tachibana." Boom. As soon as she said that, my head snapped to see the chief. He was around fifty or so years old, balding, seemed to have let himself go despite the cleaned up police uniform, and the shocking part of it all: his skin color was normal. Tachibana looked to me with a grin while I just stood there, my bottom jaw shivering and just close to chattering with the upper jaw.

Tachibana stepped out of the way to allow Soarin' and Spitfire out. I look to Celestia as she just smiled and waved. I stepped out as Tachibana followed me. When we were far away from the others and alone, I stopped and got ready to turn the ignition.

"Alright, let's get down to business, _Judge_. Hen-" I said.

"Relax. I'm not here for Banno _or_ you." Tachibana said. I stopped.

"You're not?" I asked. I turned around as he shook his head.

"I'm merely here to clean up the mess that Crush made. Some Roidmudes are more… fussier than others. What we do is based around subtlety, and we can't have that when they turn an entire school upside down." He said.

"… Why are you _really_ here? You're outing yourself and expect me to just accept that you're corrupting the cops?" I look to him. I remembered this vigilante Roidmude, hunting down and killing criminals to lure out another criminal to fulfill his template's desire for revenge. The mere idea of him taking a similar role to 001 and corrupting the officials from the inside was enough to churn my stomach.

"Well, I noticed how involved you are with one of my officers." Tachibana said.

"Rest assured, I moved out of his house. I now have little to do with him." I said. Tachibana just smiled and nodded.

"Good. Stay out of my way, and I'll stay out of yours." Tachibana said. He walked away. As he did, I asked him.

"Miss Cheerilee… her disappearance wouldn't have anything to do with the Roidmudes, right?" I asked. Tachibana chuckled.

"Why don't you find out for yourself?" He said. I was now left with what I could possibly consider a clue. 'Find out for myself.' I shuddered as I thought to myself of the fact that I'm going to an art museum. If that was meant to confirm that, yes, Roidmudes are there, then I know exactly who I'm gonna confront.

* * *

" **010?** " Banno asked as we were on the bus. The loud motor followed by chattering students muffled our communication, which made our discussion much easier to convey.

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure he has something to do with Cheerilee's disappearance." I said.

" **It's a little odd of you to pick out a specific Roidmude out of the 108. Then again, given your past assumptions, I cease to be surprised.** " Banno said. At that moment, I gulped. I knew where he was going to go with this. " **Your assumption of 001 corrupting the police coupled with your shockingly accurate guesses of which Roidmude is which has me a bit suspicious of your knowledge. Not to mention the fact that you also know of our demise.** " Banno said.

"… If you want an explanation, I'm not sure if the one I'll give will make sense." I said. How does one say to another: "Oh, yeah, I saw you on TV and I remembered how your son murdered you with an axe!"? Fortunately, the bus was close to arriving at the museum.

" **I'm not going to probe you for details just yet. Besides, you already have** ** _one_** **person on your back for that.** " Banno said. That's when I remembered Applejack. I pulled out my phone and looked at the numbers. Among all the friends and family I have, I also had Applejack's number, though I simply named her Jack, in case I ever get back to my world. Banno's right about that. I know so much about the Roidmudes and Applejack just put herself on a first-to-know basis. I took out the phone and texted her:

'Cheerilee's disappearance is no coincidence. It's a Roidmude plot. Will text more details later.'

Once that was done, the bus stopped and everyone rushed off the bus, save for one. Now, when I say she was white, I don't mean in a racial way, like she's Caucasian. I mean that she was _literally_ white. Like, white as a sheet white. She had purple hair that curled out and I just knew from her posture that she'd have some sort of posh lady accent.

"Professor Silverbolt…" Called it. "Thank you again for taking us in Cheerilee's stead." Remembering the 'game' I played, I knew she was Rarity.

"No problem, Rarity. Anything for my newest favorite school in the state." I said with a sheepish smile as I buttoned up my coat to hide Banno. I got off the bus along with my class. There, a man with glasses greeted me. The human-skin color now made me suspicious. So far the only human-skinned people were Roidmudes who didn't bother to get a new body. However, the problem was that I couldn't pin down _what_ Roidmude he might be. Yes, he had glasses, but I would have _known_ that he was Brain, one of the commanders of the Roidmudes, if I saw him with his handkerchief and had lighter brown hair. This guy lacked either of those. I shrugged it off. Maybe he's an exception to the technicolored humans in this town.

"Welcome! We've been expecting you, Canterlot High! My name is Michelangelo Jones. You must be here for my newly opened statue exhibit, yes?" He asked.

"Y-yes." I said. Well, his name isn't Japanese like Tachibana's, but his name sounded… too normal. For once, I thanked the cute quirk of everyone having weird names, since now it seems that the only normal names are the ones I should be afraid of.

"Right this way!" He said. He walked into the museum as the rest of the students and I followed. As we entered the museum, I took a look at much of the paintings. None of them, absolutely _none_ of them were of elegant women. Strange. If Paint was involved, he would have littered the place with-

My eyes stopped to one painting. It was a painting of a white deer with golden antlers grazing in the middle of a dark forest. I felt drawn to the painting. I walked over and looked at it closely. I didn't understand why I was so lured by a simple painting of a Bambi-reject. I looked at the background on the far left corner. It was a simple red dot. Why would the artist put a single red dot amidst the greens? I squinted my eyes. Seemed a bit of peach was mixed in with the greens as it surrounded the dot… almost like a face.

"Ah! You like it?" A voice broke my concentration. Next to me was a guy, around the students' age, in a brown sweatshirt and khaki pants. He also wore glasses and had normal brown skin. "The painting's called 'King of the Forest'. There's actually a whole story behind the painting, if you're interested in hearing about it." He said. I shook my head.

"Oh, thanks but I think I'm good." I said. He simply nodded.

"Okay. I understand." He then took my hand and smiled. He leaned into my ear and whispered: " _Please, enjoy your stay…"_ His voice resonated in my head as I felt a tad woozy. The person then walked over to the girls and continued his greeting, starting with Rarity. Before I could lean in for a closer listen, Michelangelo went up to me.

"Ah, you've met Trenderhoof, I see." He said. Trenderhoof… Aright, normal enough name for this place. He's off the hook.

"Yeah." I said.

"He's such an amazing artist with his words. I'm proud for him to be my student." He said.

"With his words… You mean a writer?" I asked him.

"Yes. But the way he writes, he paints with his words." He holds his hand up towards the girls. "See, look how easily swayed the girls are! Only a passionate artist would be able to have that much sweet talking." He said. As I looked at Trenderhoof clasping Rarity's hand with his own, I felt a chill go down my spine. Especially once he leaned in and whispered to Rarity. "Though, personally, I wish for them to marvel at _my_ handiwork." With that, he took his leave as the girls smiled. I raised my eyebrow at how there seems to be only females in Cheerilee's class, or at the very least, a majority.

The two left as I breathed in. There was a lot for me to soak up. I clapped my hands.

"So, who wants lunch?" I said.

* * *

I think the first indicator that this is not my world, outside of everyone having technicolor flesh, was when, despite McDonald's having a huge influence in fast foods, to the point where you couldn't go an hour on the highway without encountering at least one by a truck stop, the closest thing I could find to a McDonald's in the cafeteria was a clone called McGoofy's.

Kamen Riders seem to be no stranger to parallel universes. I never watched the show, but apparently there was one Kamen Rider show that dealt exclusively to parallel universes. I only knew the bare minimum of it because of a crossover he had with the first Rider I actually watched, Double.

Other than it being a piece of crap according to Kamen Rider fans passing themselves off as critics, that's all I know about that rider. Maybe if I had seen the show, I probably would have a better idea of the situation I was in with Banno and this world. As I thought about it, I stared at my alternate universe version of a Big Mac.

Big Mac… I remembered Applejack's oddly named brother. The thought of Applejack got me back to the phone. She hadn't responded. Of course, she's probably in class. I decided to text her the rest of the info.

'I have reason to believe that a Roidmude is at the museum and that he's converting women into paintings. I can handle it on my own.' I stopped texting. I remembered how, when the police were hot on Roidmude 010's trail, he stashed the paintings in a far off warehouse. If I flub up, chances are he'll do it again with Cheerilee and possibly any others he had converted into paintings. I took a bite into my Big Mac and continued the text.

'I might need back up. Namely transportation… if you have.' I shouldn't be asking my students for favors like this. Especially since I felt like I could put them in mortal danger. I'm not Fourze, damn it! I'm a mad scientist wearing a mad scientist as a belt! However, I didn't want to risk losing to the Roidmudes just because I lacked a big fancy car to help he chase them down like the Tridoron, Drive's vehicle.

As I hit send, I could hear Rarity chatter about finding her prince charming.

Oh God.

"He was so dreamy! Oh, he was so romantic… he made my heart flutter." Rarity said. I could hear similar talk from the other girls. Ugh, one of the many things I hate about high school: girls gushing over boys.

"Gag me with a spoon." I muttered. Rarity turned to me.

"What was that?" She asked. I rolled my eyes.

"Look, Rarity, I know you have this puppy love thing goin' on and everything, but I'm pretty sure that Trenderhoof guy's just some hipster playboy. Next thing you know, he'll have the hots for a hick." I said. Rarity looked to me with a dirty glare not unlike Applejack's.

"How dare you say that about Trenderhoof? He's the handsomest man I have ever seen!" Rarity slammed her hands on the table.

"You just met him today. For a minute. It's like you want to marry him or something." I said.

"I _do!_ " Rarity said. I resisted every urge to bash my head against the table, since I fear I'd get burger juice and sesame seeds all over my forehead on accident.

"Rarity, do you honestly believe that fairy tale bull?" I said. "There's more to love than just the cliché love at first sight. There's dates, there's getting parents' approval, financial problems… I swear, if the crap you spout about love at first sight was true, there'd be a lot less divorce rates." Rarity looked away.

"Well, you just don't know what love is like. He is to me what Prince Blueblood is to Princess Platinum!" She said.

"The who to the what?" I muttered. Rarity sighed as she got up and took me by the arm. She proceeded to drag me out of the cafeteria and towards the paintings where I met Michelangelo. She pointed to the painting next to "King of the Forest". It was an oil painting of two people dressed in royal clothing, dancing and waltzing like they were in some sort of Disney film. Both were white-skinned like Rarity, and in fact, one of them looked exactly like Rarity save for the dress and jewelry. The other was your generic Prince Charming with blonde hair.

"It was a lovely yet tragic tale of two lovers, both from different kingdoms." Rarity said. I immediately groaned.

"Oh joy, it ends in a suicide pact, right?" I asked. I turned to Rarity, who just stared at the painting. "Uh, Rarity?" I asked. She just seemed to… zone out. She proceeded to turn away from me and walk like a zombie, following the crowd of the other class members. I shook my head.

I instantly knew what was going on.

But I was too late.

" _Follow me…_ "

My legs picked themselves up as I felt pulled towards the others.

" _Come with me…_ "

I tried moving every muscle in my body, but I couldn't free my body from the control the voice had over me. It wasn't like with Banno's control, where I felt my body flex and move to every attack, but rather, it felt like I was a puppet and the voice was the puppeteer.

… Voice. That was the Roidmude I'm fighting today, it seems.

* * *

As were lead into the basement, I knew we weren't alone. All the girls that Trenderhoof spoke to were there too. All of them standing and droning off. And yet, Trenderhoof was not to be found _anywhere_. I looked around for him.

"Ah, welcome…"

Of course, I knew he would take the form of my ideal man.

I just didn't realize that said ideal man would be Ryoma himself.

"I'm thankful that you are here today."

 _This is_ not _Ryoma,_ I thought. Even if it was his voice, it still wasn't him. I knew it was someone else, even without knowing it was the Voice Roidmude using his powers to appear as my ideal man. Ryoma definitely had the charm of a mad scientist. This Ryoma spoke smoothly. The other Ryoma, the one _I_ knew, spoke harsher and quicker. A sociopath at his finest. Not some cheap ass swindler.

Despite this, I was still enamoured. I still admired his physique, his looks, and his devilish smile. And I wasn't the only one who fell for this.

Many of the other girls fawned to him. They called him by various names. Some of them names of students I had on my attendance list, like Flash Sentry or even Big Macintosh. Then Michelangelo walked in.

"Alright, shall we get this show on the road then, Voice?" He asked the false Ryoma.

"Not quite. I enjoy swindling these women… It's nostalgic… Just a while longer, please?" He asked. Michelangelo tsk-tsked.

"I know, but remember that what _I_ do is nostalgic to me too. Tell them to make a pose." He said. Well, the prick confirmed it. He's Paint. I struggled to move my hands, but Ryoma simply looked at me and said:

"Don't fight it. It'll be over shortly." I grunted. I looked around as my arms sluggishly moved to a refined, folded position. To my surprise, there weren't any signs of paintings of women. You'd think if I saw the Paint Roidmude in the flesh, his modus operandi, trapping women in paintings, would be highly noticeable. The only thing I found were statues. Statues of…

Women…

When I saw the stone statue of the librarian, a chill went up my spine as I saw a ghost of her trying to break out of her prison.

" _Help me…_ " Cheerilee whispered out to me. My body tried to shake itself awake. That's when I noticed the one thing Voice didn't freeze up: my mouth.

"Snap out of it, girls!" I said to the crowd. "These two are nothing but monsters!"

"Monsters. Heh… Oh, if Heart was around to hear this." Michelangelo mused. He walked over to me and grabbed Banno. "Well, nothing you say will snap them out of this. We'll be taking back our creator now." He struggled to pull him out of my waist.

" **Difficult, isn't it?** " Banno said. Michelangelo let go of the Driver.

"Well, taking you alive was a bust. Fortunately, our leader has made it so that we won't need you for our survival. And considering how you accelerated our extinction at the hands of the _real_ monsters… I figure I'll save my brethren the trouble and destroy you myself." He walked away. I could feel Banno tremble on my waist.

" **H-hey, stupid! You should** ** _start my engine_** **already!** " Banno spoke out. I figured having his life on the line would result in him losing his cool. As much as I would want to, my arms were frozen in place and I was unable to. The only thing I could probably do was shout a bit of banter.

"The only monster I see is _you_ , Paint!" I shouted to him. Michelangelo stopped. He snickered.

"Paint? Is that what you want to call me?" He broke out into a fit of full-out laughter. "You mistook me for… my teacher?" He turned around and took off his glasses. Wait… Teacher? I could barely gasp as he transformed. He wasn't the Paint Roidmude as I had realized.

When his body transformed into his true form, I could see the resemblance of the Paint Roidmude. His left arm is comprised of nothing but tubes excreting gray clay that was connected to his robotic body. Instead of a painting in his chest, it was a face reminiscent of the Statue of David's face. Everything else, from his piping to even his artist's hat, was the same, save for the fact that his entire body was a silvery gray instead of gold.

"I have become something _more_ than my teacher. As it turns out, my talent wasn't in drawing or painting for that matter." I now remembered him. Roidmude 084. He was simply a minor, unadvanced Roidmude who worked with the Paint Roidmude as a student, only to be stopped and killed by Kamen Rider Drive. "Behold, my _true_ talent! My… DESTINY!" He waved his arms as particles began to flash.

The density shifted as gray strands began flying from the Roidmude's clay hand to the girls, starting with Rarity. The strands fell onto the skin of them and began to harden like rock. The process was very slow, but it allowed me to see the anguish the girls were faced with as their control from the Voice Roidmude was taken away, only to notice that they were slowly being turned into stone. The Roidmude turned to me and chuckled.

I was next. As soon as he was done turning some of the girls into stone, I would be next… and I would be killed.

Just then…

 _Clatter_.

A small, metal object fell onto the floor. My salvation. It took me five seconds for the vibrations and sound of the metal hitting the ground to snap me out of it, but once it did, the girls and I broke down into an insane, screaming fit.

It was a flaw of the Voice Roidmude's power. While he may have worked his hypnotic voice on us, it had the side effect of messing with our hearing, to the point where it's now sensitive to something as simple as a fork clattering onto the floor would render us insane.

And fortunately, insane was the best mood to be in right now. As I screamed and dropped to the ground, I flailed my arms in the right way so that they'd hit the ignition. Then I let Banno handle the rest.

" **Henshin!** " Banno cried out as I transformed into Gold Drive. As Banno took over, my body stopped. This kind of feeling of being controlled by him, compared to how I felt being controlled by Voice, was much better. Even when he laughed, I was given a sense of calm, knowing that he would handle it. " **You will pay dearly for even** ** _considering_** **robbing the world of its greatest scientific mind!** " Banno ran and threw a punch towards the Roidmude, only for a girl to run in the way of it and receive it instead.

"You forgot I was here too?" I could see the illusion of Ryoma shatter and in its place, Trenderhoof. He transformed into the Voice Roidmude, a robotic body with his entire upper body filled with nothing but brass tuba-like horns. "If I may, Sculpt?" The Voice Roidmude called more girls to my area as they blocked me. Banno struggled and pushed them out of the way, only for more of them to dogpile him.

" **Pitiful women! They should be obeying** ** _me_** **! Not the walking scrap!** " Banno shouted. " **I'm giving you a Shift Car. Use it!** " Banno turned the ignition as the circuitry on Gold Drive's chest lit up. A glowing orb with a slight digital look to it appeared from it and towards the Shift Brace. I saw its solar grid and instantly knew it was Burning Solar. I activated it and my entire body lit up with a flash. The girls instantly backed away as I ran towards the Voice Roidmude and decked him in the face. As I continued to, I slowly stopped.

Because he asked for it.

"Stop!" He said. And I did.

" **What are you doing? Don't you remember the little time limit we have?** " Banno asked. My fingers drooped towards the ignition.

"No, don't turn-" The Voice Roidmude tried to tell me, but I already turned it. Banno took back control as he continued to lay fist after fist onto the Roidmude's face. That's when I heard the screaming. As soon as Banno was done beating up the Voice Roidmude, he turned around and saw the Sculpt Roidmude finishing up on turning a quarter of the girls, Rarity included, into statues. Most of them had held their hands up in horror, others raised their arms mid-insanity, as if they were laughing. Banno himself chuckled.

" **I admire how you Roidmudes want to make humanity your toy… But I'm afraid to say that they, along with you, are** ** _my_** **toys to do what I want. If you think you can simply take them away, you have another thing coming!** " Banno tried to go after Sculpt, but suddenly, a sharp, painful gunshot hit us in the chest and we were knocked down.

I looked to see where the gun was coming from as I heard the casing clatter onto the ground. I saw a mass of rose petals fall and scatter about as I saw a girl in a red cloak walking towards me, holding a familiar mechanical scythe. Upon closer inspection, I knew it wasn't a woman. I recognized the man.

It was Ross from the Con.

"The Grim Reaper!" The two Roidmudes shouted.

"Go… I'll take care of the Kamen Rider." Ross said. The two Roidmudes nodded and rushed off. The Sculpt Roidmude pressed his clay hand onto Rarity. She, along with the rest of the girls that were turned into statues, transformed into the gray strands and entered his hand as he ran off. Banno simply looked at Ross.

"Banno! Go after them!" I said to him.

" **They called him the Grim Reaper. You know very well what that means.** " He turned the ignition. Yes. I knew exactly what that meant.

Roidmudes are known to get rowdy, like Crush and Iron. They're also known to attract attention, like Paint and Sculpt. And so, a solution was made by their leader, Heart. They would have someone who would hunt down these rowdy Roidmudes and defeat them, allowing them to be reset by Banno. As necessity, this Grim Reaper had to be on par with the Roidmudes he fights… and by extension, the Kamen Riders that were _also_ made to fight the Roidmudes.

The Steering Sword flew to my hands. I knew that I couldn't just walk away.

I had to fight him.

"So, you must be the Kamen Rider I was told to hunt down." Ross said.

"What the hell are you doing with the Roidmudes?" I asked him.

"It's like they said, I'm their Grim Reaper." Ross said.

"I know, but… _why_?" I asked.

"Because this world _needs_ a hero." Ross said.

" **A hero… That's a laugh…** " Banno chuckled.

"For once, I agree." I readied my sword. "You're really messed if you think those monsters are heroes." I ran to him with my sword in hand. He smirked and fired off a round from his scyth- wait he used his scythe as a gun?

Oh, right… It was also a gun. Sadly, I realized this too late, as he used the recoil to fly towards me. He swung his scythe at me. As it connected with my armor, he swung around again, connecting. He repeated this in the span of six seconds, with six blows landed per second. He leaped over and choked me with the blade end of his scythe.

"I know." He muttered before he fired. With the force of the recoil, he went into a drop kick. He knocked me back and onto the ground as I heard the clatter of another casing. I turned the ignition. Banno got up as he got the Zenrin Shooter, a gun where it had a motorcycle's front wheel as a sort of blade. He fired at Ross, though he struck the bullets away with his scythe at a blinding speed.

That's when I noticed that the particles have returned to their normal form. They had been since Voice and Sculpt went away.

"Banno, you thinking what I'm thinking?" I told him.

" **Oh yes...** " Banno turned the ignition as the circuit tire turned on and flashed. The particles shifted again and now Ross was under Slowdown.

"Now let's get out of here and-" I ran off…

Only for Ross to strike me.

"Sorry, but that won't work on me." Ross spoke, not in that shocked way that victims of Slowdown would undergo, but rather in a normal way. That's when I realized… He was able to land so many blows on me in the span of six seconds… He flew towards me and blocked the shots in no time…

"Banno… I think he…" I muttered.

" **To be able to move during a Slowdown without access to a Core Driviar… H-he has super speed?!** " Banno blurted it out.

"Call it… my Semblance." He ran, though it was here I noticed that his fighting was significantly slower than before. He was still able to move, though at a pace where we would be able to fight him on a more fair level. I turned the ignition to summon a weapon capable of handling the scythe. A long blade on the end of a stick? Well, time to say hello to the Signal Ax…

Though as soon as the ax came to Banno, he dodged out of the way as the ax impacted onto the ground and stuck there.

" **Gaah!** " Banno shrieked.

"Relax! It's not going to kill you! … Again." I muttered. I should have realized that Banno would probably still have memories of meeting his end with that weapon. I could hear Banno growl as he hesitated in picking up the ax.

" **Hmph. Just be sure that it's nowhere near me, okay?** " Banno said. With both the Signal Ax and Zenrin Shooter, he swung the weapons at Ross. He blocked it with the shaft of his scythe. He pushed up and knocked Banno away. With two heavy swings from his scythe, he slashed at the armor and kicked up a huge amount of sparks from the armor. He proceeded to aim and fire two sniper rounds at him. The last shot blew him away. He landed on the wall behind him, cracking a bit as he fell down.

"That'll do it for today." Ross walked off while the Gold Drive armor canceled out. As I got up, I noticed something. There was nothing irritating my ears. No swindling voice, no metal ringing, nothing. I looked around and noticed the various discarded bullet casings.

That's when I gripped my hand. I felt full, complete control again. No longer was I Voice's puppet. I chuckled.

"Now, I am free. There are no strings on-"

Before I could even finish that quote, I heard a muffled scream coming from the Cheerilee statue. I ran and checked behind. It was Trenderhoof. But… didn't Trenderhoof-

Right, Roidmudes can copy people. Forgot that. Trenderhoof seemed to be bound and gagged like a typical damsel in distress… if said damsel was a dude. Well, regardless of gender roles, I untied him.

"Th-Thank… Wait… Professor Silverbolt! Oh thank God!" Trenderhoof suddenly grappled me. That's when I noticed that Trenderhoof wore a different sweatshirt. The copy wore something that was brown and akin to a turtleneck, while this one wore a simple, purple vest-style sweatshirt. The make of the shirt reminded me a lot of how my school uniforms were designed.

"I-I'm not… Look, you're safe now and-"

"What were you doing with those students from Canterlot High? Were those rumors of you transferring to them true?" Trenderhoof asked me.

"Yes, now shut up. I need you to call the authorities, let them know that a man named Michelangelo Jones kidnapped a dozen girls. I'll handle the rest." I said. Before Trenderhoof could say anything, I ran off, only to trip over something. I got up and saw what was on the ground…

It was a padlock. No. The lock was bulky… big enough to fit in the palm of my hand. I gripped it… I had felt this same feeling before. It was roughly bigger than a Lockseed, a collectable toy that was in Kamen Rider Gaim. I dropped it to the ground.

 _Clatter._

It was that exact same noise that drove me mad and broke me from Voice's hold. I picked it up, though this time I gripped it harder. I could feel my face freezing into a smile. I felt… genuinely enjoyed by this. I wasn't sure why. At least until my mind flashed to something.

* * *

 _I could see my hands hovering over something that looked exactly like the Lockseed I held. Huge compared to normal Lockseeds and lacked a fun, colorful front, instead showing raw bits of metal and wiring. I saw one of my hands reaching for a screwdriver and the other reaching for what seemed to be the metal frame for the Lockseed. I place the frame onto the Lockseed and screw it into place. The plate was all black save for a center that was molded into a red rose. That's when I could see the serial number: L.V.-02._

 _I soon see myself pick up the Lockseed and tossing it to a man with a goatee and a bowler hat wearing a black waistcoat._

 _"Here you go, Sid. Now, I presume these kids will be able to test it properly?" It was at this point that I realized that I was remembering a memory that wasn't mine._

 _"You're underestimating them. These punks are highly competitive. All I have to do is say that this is part of a new game and they'll use these in no time." Sid said as he held that Lockseed together with another, white and pink Lockseed. As he walked off, the picture faded away…_

* * *

And I was back to looking at the unfinished Lock Vehicle. I looked around. Trenderhoof was gone. Must have went to call the cops already. I ran off as well. Who knows how much time I've wasted looking at the Lockseed.

* * *

As I left the museum, I spotted a red pick-up truck pull into the parking lot. The window slid down and I saw Big Macintosh behind the wheel.

"Hop in." Big Mac said. Just then I heard a buzzing. I pulled out my cellphone.

Yep. It's Applejack.

'Okay. Big Mac's on his way. You're lucky that he left school early to tend to Granny.'

I nod and got into the car as Big Mac drove off. I looked out to see if there were any Roidmudes running about, though I failed to see any.

Then I noticed a similar pickup truck. Its back was filled with the statues of the girls.

"Hey, follow that truck!" I told Mac. He complied and chased after the truck. I could see one of the Roidmudes, Sculpt, emerged out, transformed into his Roidmude form, and fired off a chunk of hardened clay at us. Big Mac drove out of the way and skidded right into a ditch.

Fortunately, we were unscathed, though the popping of the airbags made me jump. I looked outside and saw the truck slowly speeding away. I turned to Big Mac, who checked himself to see if there were any injuries.

"No. I don't want to drag innocents into this." I muttered.

" **So, we're giving up? Alright. Let the Roidmudes get away with their prizes. We'll live another day.** " Banno piped up. However, I clutched onto the Lockseed.

"No. We're not giving up. Banno, this thing I hold is incomplete, but I know what it is. It's a vehicle." I said.

" **Hm… So, you want me to program it, so to speak?** " Banno asked.

"Yes. I'm just not sure if we'll have the time to create it." I said. Banno simply chuckled.

" **You underestimate me. Transform, and I'll have this device ready to use in five seconds** **.** " Banno said.

"And then what?" I asked. My mind flashed back to his declaration of world domination again.

" **I wouldn't mind cleaning up those loose ends. After all, they nearly killed us. I don't want them to try again and** ** _succeed_** **.** " Banno said.

"… Alright. Henshin." I said. I turned the ignition and became Gold Drive. I ignored Big Mac giving me a wide-eyed stare, and Banno possibly did the same. Banno held the Lockseed, then clutched it hard with his left hand. I saw golden energy surge from his left forearm towards his hand. The light enveloped the Lockseed as he continued to clutch it, to the point of crushing force. Eventually, the Lockseed was nothing but glowing bits of gold data. However, it was only for a brief while before the light faded. In its place was a new Lockseed I have never seen before.

Put up on the front was a metal frame resembling a sunflower. The center, however, had a wheel instead. Printed on one of the metallic petals was L.V.-05, printed in the same style as the other Lock Vehicles, with a slash through the words as though it was cut with a sword. As with most Lockseeds, this had the hook part of the lock on the very top, and a button on the side to activate it. Banno turned the ignition as I took over.

I looked over to Big Mac again.

"You good?" I asked.

"Eeeeyup." Big Mac quickly nodded.

"Good. Call the cops. I'm closing this case." I got out of the car.

Without any further time to lose, I popped the Lockseed open and tossed it into the air. The Lockseed transformed into an ATV the size of Big Mac's truck. The petals of the sunflower formed to make guards for the four wheels, while the hook became more or less its hood. I got onto it and drove off onto the highway where the Roidmudes were getting away.

* * *

The highway was conveniently empty for this chase. Though, I hardly remembered the Kamen Riders ever getting stuck in traffic. However, about a minute into the drive, I switched over to Banno. As I did, I summoned a trio of Shift Cars.

" **So, I see you've noticed my modification to this vehicle?** " Banno said. I nodded as I spotted something on the dashboard. Something that even Ryoma Sengoku couldn't add to the Lock Vehicle: Shift Car capability. On the dashboard were three slots for Shift Cars, arranged in a triangle. Banno looked to the side where the Shift Cars were catching up to him. He chuckled as he saw a red sports car, a black buggy, and a green garbage truck.

"Exactly. Let's see what we can use." I said. The Shift Cars leaped up into the dashboard and plugged into their slots.

" **SPEED! WILD! TECHNIC! ENGINE EXTENSION!** " I shudder as I heard Banno's voice announcing the Shift Cars. It felt… unnatural. I heard the roar of the engine as Speed was called up first.

" **SPEED!** " The engine revved up as the highway and the blue sky blurred together. Before I know it, we were pulled up right next to the Roidmudes, who properly freaked out.

"GAH! Kamen Rider! What happened with the Grim Reaper!?" Voice asked. I saw him behind the wheel.

" **Your precious Grim Reaper does what all dumb villains do: leave without landing the final blow!** " Banno said with a laugh.

"H-he what!?" Voice said as Sculpt held his hand out and grabbed my hand. My hand slowly turned into stone.

" **WILD!** " Banno rammed the ATV next to the pickup truck and knocked Sculpt's hand off with the knock back. He drove into the truck again and caused it to careen over. It crashed into the railing as the Roidmudes got out. The truck flipped over, taking the statues with it.

" **TECHNIC!** " Two mechanical tentacles, much like Banno's own tentacles that he would use in the show, sprung out and grabbed the statues before it settled them down. Banno got out of the car and turned on the ignition for me. I saw the two Roidmudes in front of me. I cocked a grin.

They're going along for the ride.

I pressed the red button on the Shift Brace.

" **THE FINISHER!** " Banno announced. " **… W-what did I just say?!** " Banno asked. I ignored him and crouched. Gold energy built up into my right leg as I broke into a sprint and leaped in the air. " **FULL THROTTLE!** " I extended my right leg and Rider Kicked the first Roidmude I saw, Sculpt. As soon as my foot made contact, his body exploded. As the smoke cleared, I noticed something: the lack of a Core. I looked to my right and saw why.

Sculpt was running away. Hmph… Seemed I destroyed a copy.

"H-hey! What about me!?" Voice shouted out. I grunted.

"You'll get your just desserts. Banno!" I said as I turned the ignition, giving him control of my body as three shift cars went his way. Banno ignored them and ran to Voice, feeding him punch after punch. By the third punch, Voice was knocked onto the pavement. Voice held out his right hand, which I recognize as a megaphone-like appendage. His hand emitted a loud sonic shrill that caused tiny sparks to explode on the pavement before hitting us. Banno stumbled back before he took the first Shift Car: Rolling Gravity.

Rather than summon a ten-ton weight to lug around, Banno instead focused his golden energy into his fist and slammed it onto the ground. This golden energy created a shockwave that overpowered the sonic blast. As the shockwave hit Voice, a field of gravity kept him down as Banno switched out Rolling Gravity for Spin Mixer.

It's probably the first time I ever saw the Tire for the Shift Car appear. Each of the Shift Cars came with a Tire, though since me and Banno relied a lot on Golden Energy, a special type of power that super-evolved Roidmudes possessed, there wasn't a time where we would need to switch out tires.

Thankfully my body is numb when Banno controls me, as the Spin Mixer Tire came right for me and popped out the red circuitry off my chest. The Tire spun around as it spat out blobs of concrete. Voice, while in midair via the gravity well, fired off several sound blasts, though the blobs managed to collide with and destroy them. One of the blobs managed to get past the barrage and hit directly on his pseudo-arm cannon, sealing it shut. I could hear the sound trying to get out of his cannon. It got louder and louder. I also noticed that the cannon was getting bigger and wider.

"Oh shi-" Before Voice could say anything else, his arm cannon exploded and he was now armless. Banno fired a few more blobs, essentially sticking him to the railing as the energy well dissipated. Banno switched out the Shift Car for Rumble Dump and he turned the ignition. It's me now. Crap. Gotta have to think of a cool one liner…

"Silence is _golden_ , wouldn't you agree, Banno?" Well, it's the thought that counts. I pressed the button on my Shift Brace.

" **Yes, I would agre- THE FINISHER! S-seriously!? I put in** ** _that_** **feature in there?!** " I couldn't help but snicker, but I had to defeat the Roidmude. I leaped up in the air as the Spin Mixer Tire went away and the circuitry returned. Doing the same thing to the Sculpt Roidmude, I preformed the signature attack of all Kamen Riders, the Rider Kick, though this time, there was a golden energy drill attached to my foot. " **FULL THROTTLE! RUMBLE DUMP!** " I couldn't resist shouting it out:

" **RIDER ROCKET DRILL KICK!** " I shouted as I held one arm out as if it had a rocket attached to it. The drill bore into the Roidmude before his body broke down and blew up. I backflipped and landed on my feet as his Core, 030, floated a bit before it blew up. I turned around to the statues as my transformation cancelled out.

" **Putting the switching feature was one thing, but the habit of announcing crap like 'The Finisher' and 'Full Throttle'!?** " Banno, however, was rambling.

"Hey!" I managed to shut him up. "Let's take these guys back to the museum. If Sculpt's modeled after Paint, these girls will break out in a short while." I said. Banno sighed as we got onto the ATV and activated Technic again to carry the statues.

* * *

As I arrived back, the police were already there. No sign of Tachibana, however. Soarin', however, was there. As was Spitfire. Great. I drove the ATV away from the museum. I really wouldn't want to explain to the snippy police officer what I was doing with near perfect statue recreations of real people and why they suddenly broke free and _became_ real people.

I was quite surprised that I was able to find a warehouse so close to the museum. I stopped by and dropped off the statues. I looked and admired the ATV.

"Sweet. My very own ride. Well, _obviously_ I'll get a ride. I'm a Kamen _Rider_ after all." I chuckled.

" **And to think we'd spend our time carpooling with that cowgirl's family.** " Banno said.

"So… what other neat stuff you put in there? A twelve stroke engine?" I hopped onto the ATV to get another feel for it.

" **They don't make twelve stroke engines, idiot.** " Banno said.

"Hey, you're a genius that made intelligent robots who take human forms and slow down time. I'd figure you'd at least do something no one else did with an ATV." I said.

" **I** ** _did_** **! I scrimped and salvaged the mechanics I found in the device you gave me and added in Krim's designs! I even added in Shift Car capability to make up for the lack of a Core Driviar. Are you questioning my intelligence?** " Banno asked.

"No… I'll have to say, you did a mighty fine job with this, and I thank you. This is definitely the broccoli I asked you to pick up." I patted the ATV. "Though it's a sunflower… Needs a name… Oh! SunDriver! G-Get it? It's a sunflower, but I'm Kamen Rider Gold _Drive_ , so I'm really a Driver?" I said. Banno groaned.

" **I** ** _was_** **going to appreciate your compliment, but now I wonder if I should let you remain in my world once I take it over.** " Banno said. The sense of dread took over any joy I had with the newly attained Lockvehicle.

"And _how_ , pray tell, do you hope to achieve that?" I asked.

" **Whoever brought the Roidmudes back also brought** ** _me_** **back too. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that he would bring back the Sigma Circular as well.** " Banno said. I began to remember something. The Roidmudes I faced kept _everything_. Their personality, their forms, even the humans they copied… It wouldn't be any stretch to ask:

"So, you expect that the Roidmudes would retain their Super Evolutions?" The level beyond mere Evolution. A golden version of their old, Advanced forms.

" ** _Exactly!_** **We may have five Super Evolved Roidmudes to power up the Sigma Circular, maybe more! Think of the possibilities! If this is all possible, we could rule everything twice over! Assuming you want to be on my good side…** " Banno said. I gripped onto the handlebar of the ATV. How could Banno be so _stupid_ to think that I would join his side in world domination? Before I could counter-argue, I heard the sound of stone cracking. I had the SunDriver set down the statues as they cracked open. They faded away as I saw the girls be free. I immediately went to Rarity first.

"Ugh… my head…" She looked to me as she held her head. "Darling, can you tell me what just happened? All I remember was talking to you about my love for Trenderhoof." She asked.

"Oh, well, we just went out for some air. That's all." Good thing Applejack wasn't around. Otherwise she'd throttle me.

" _This_ far ahead? We _really_ should get going to the museum. I'm pretty sure school was over an hour or two ago."

* * *

By the time we went back the museum, the sun was setting. I went over to the police… That's when I saw Trenderhoof. Talking with Spitfire. Crap. Crap. Crap.

"Alright, so a robot came to you when you were at the museum… then became you, taped you up, and threw you into the basement?" Spitfire asked.

"Yeah! That's what happened!" Trenderhoof said. Spitfire just shook her head and took out the handcuffs.

"I'm taking you in." Spitfire said.

"F-For what!?" Trenderhoof asked.

"Outright making up stories to the police. We better get the true story when we interrogate you." She said. Before I could intervene, Big Mac came up too.

"It's true." Big Mac simply said. Double Crap.

"Oh? And how do you know?" Spitfire turned to him.

"They wrecked my truck." He pointed to a tow-truck behind him as it carried his pickup. Next to Big Mac was Cheerilee, sipping from a cup of coffee as she nodded. Great, more people to talk about this Roidmude attack.

"I remembered being at the museum ago before I saw Big Mac lead me away before I blacked out. But... I remembered being trapped..." She said. Spitfire glared to Big Mac.

"I wasn't at the museum the night she vanished." Big Mac said. Trenderhoof piped up.

"Yeah! I noticed that there was a statue that looked just like Cheerilee. But I was too busy being tied up by the robot me." Spitfire just groaned.

"Can _someone_ tell me what actually happened!?" Spitfire said. I stepped forward. I took a deep breath.

"I can." I said. Spitfire just glared.

"Oh. Lovely. You just also happen to be involved in this incident too." Spitfire said.

"Professor Silverbolt! There you are! That's the guy, officer. He freed me from the robot's clutches!" Trenderhoof said.

"… Really?" Spitfire looked to me. Her glare became less angry and more… tired. "Alright, Professor. Can you attest to the claims of… robot attacks?" Spitfire asked.

"…" I bit my tongue. If I tell them the truth of Roidmudes, I'll just be labeled as a crazy and probably be put in the looney bin. If I lie, it'll bite me in the ass once the attacks start being more frequent… _Especially_ since I know these Roidmudes enough for it to be an inevitability.

Again, Banno's advice helped.

"Perhaps. When I arrived on the scene, there were no robots to be seen. However, with the possible advancements of science, you can't just eliminate the possibility of robots existing just yet." I said.

"I can. And I will." Spitfire said. Well, _she's_ living proof that you don't need Freeze to muck up the police.

"What I _can_ tell you is that there _were_ kidnappers in the museum. I managed to catch them in the act during a class field trip and I chased them out. They won't be coming back anytime soon." I said.

"Oh… Well, aren't _you_ the little vigilante? Okay. If _anyone_ 's being taken in, it's gonna be _you_." Spitfire readied her cuffs. Well, it's Morton's fork. Damned if I do, damned if I don't.

"Spitfire, you _know_ we don't have any anti-vigilantism laws." That voice. I gave a small sigh of relief as I smelled the juniper. Spitfire simply groaned.

"Wind Rider, who invited _you_?" Spitfire asked.

"No one. When I saw police cars piling onto the museum, I had to see what was up. And it seems I picked the right time too. Seems I'm not the only one who needs to be reminded of stuff." Wind Rider said. "Besides, this whole robot story is exactly the same kind of story that the Apples had a couple of days ago."

"It doesn't prove anything!" She said.

"It does when the exact same thing happens. I overheard the whole thing. Boy, you said the robot copied your appearance, right?" Wind Rider asked. Trenderhoof nodded. "The incident at the Apples Residence had a robot copy the appearance of one of their legs. This is vital information to have, Spitfire. For someone as eager to dig up the truth, I'm surprised you didn't piece this together. Besides, three different people are all saying the same thing. Pretty sure it's not one big collaborated story." Wind Rider said.

"Well… I…" Spitfire said.

"With that said, I'll take my leave before Soarin' gets mad at me for doing your job. Again." With that, Wind Rider walked off, but not before he patted me on the back. "Keep up the good work." He said. I just smiled and nodded. Wind Rider's being the sanest of the cops despite being a retired geezer.

"I guess I'll look further into this… Robot thing. Don't think this isn't over." Spitfire then went up into my personal space, to the point where our noses touched. "We'll cross paths again, and next time, no one will be bailing you out." After a brief push from her face, she stormed off. Rarity then approached me and looked at Trenderhoof.

"Hmph. You're a Crystal Prep student? I should have known better than to adore you." She said.

"W-wait, what!?" Trenderhoof exclaimed.

"I can't believe I fell for a pitiful excuse like you! I wouldn't date you if you were the last man on Earth!" With that, Rarity turned around as I followed her. "You're right, Professor Silverbolt. Love isn't just what it was cracked up to be." She said. Suddenly, I had the weirdest urge to laugh. What's scary was that Rarity laughed along with me… as if on cue. My body shivered. This random burst of laughter could be the work of another Roidmude. However, for a moment, the laughter died down and I could breathe again.

That's when I saw Soarin' with another officer. The latter held a ziplock bag containing the bullet shells that came from Ross during our duel…

That's when I thought of something.

"Banno… Suddenly I doubt our Grim Reaper is dumb…"

* * *

Sculpt ran out of breath and stopped. He was pretty sure that Gold Drive would not go after him. It was night time now. He was near a closed up shop. Humans need sleep, right? That's when he heard someone approach him.

"Sculpt…" Sculpt turned around and saw a middle-aged man in a police uniform approach him. It was for a brief moment before his body morphed into a black-colored Roidmude with green lines going down both the right side of his face and his right arm. The left side of the Roidmude's face was a recreation of a human's face.

"J-judge!" The Sculpt Roidmude fidgeted as Judge rested a black and green stick on his shoulder. "How's the work on infiltrating the police?"

"Difficult. Especially when you have to constantly cover up your allies' mistakes." Judge tapped the stick repeatedly on his shoulder. "A shame Freeze isn't around. He would have ensured your hijinks would go unnoticed." As Judge closed in, Sculpt held up his hand.

"Rest assured, my hijinks resulted in our enemies making a mistake! I know the host of Gold Drive! If we inform the others, we'll be able to kill her and take back our creator!" Sculpt said. Judge just chuckled.

"Nice try. But I'm afraid your bargaining chip isn't effective. I know who Gold Drive is too. And even if I lacked that information, it still doesn't excuse your ruthlessness!" Judge began to beat the Roidmude with his stick as electricity sprang from it and zapped the Roidmude. Two hits later and Judge knocks the Sculpt Roidmude onto the ground. As Sculpt struggled to get up, he saw rose petals drifting down. He looked up and saw the red-hooded Reaper standing on the rooftop of the building they were in front of.

"The Grim Reaper's here! Now you're gonna get it!" Sculpt laughed. "Grim Reaper! Help me! This Roidmude is trying to kill me!" He shouted to Ross. That's when Judge laughed. "H-hey! What's so funny?" He asked.

"You think he's after _me_? Why do you think we have a Grim Reaper in the first place?" Judge looked to the Roidmude before he morphed back to his human guise. "To make sure rowdy Roidmudes like you don't drag the rest of us down." Tachibana looked up to Ross and gave a quick nod.

Ross vanished, leaving behind several rose petals. The Sculpt Roidmude turned and tried to run, only for him to see Ross standing in front of him. Ross slashed overhead at the Sculpt Roidmude. As the hit landed, he swung the Crescent Rose around and struck him again. And again. And again. And again. Each strike came from a new direction. He even placed in a few shots to the Roidmude's head, by that point, it was overkill. He barely gave the Roidmude time to counterattack. He planted the scythe on the ground and fired one more shot. It knocked the Roidmude into the air.

Ross leaped into the air and for a brief moment, he stayed in the air and readied his scythe for one final slash as the moonlight shined brightly. He fell right into the path of the oncoming Roidmude and ran his blade through him. As he landed, the Sculpt Roidmude didn't scream. His body broke apart into rose petals as his Core simply fluttered out of it.

"Nice job." Tachibana patted Ross on the shoulder. Ross gave a brief smile as the Core floated upwards.

"Nice job!? He let the Kamen Rider get away! I saw the Rider chase us down! Voice died because our Grim Reaper didn't finish off the Kamen Rider!" Sculpt said. Ross just stood there before he smirked.

"I just thought a few attacks would render her unable to fight. Seems she's tougher than I thought." Ross said. That's when Sculpt's core noticed the casings fired from the Crescent Rose.

"No… You didn't… You broke Voice's control over the Kamen Rider on purpose, didn't you!? You… You traitor! Wait until I tell this to the boss!" The Core tried to float away before Tachibana took out an iPad.

"Unfortunately, you're slated to be reset." He said.

"Judge! This human maybe assisting the Kamen Rider in killing our brethren! Are you just going to allow him to get away with that?" Sculpt's core, 084, said.

"You are just as guilty, are you not? You left Voice to die, after all." Judge held up the iPad as the Core began to get sucked not it.

"Judge… Have you really betrayed us!?" These were the last words 084 said before it got sucked into the iPad. Tachibana put it away and looked to Ross.

"I'll see to it that 084 will forget about your involvement. But be warned. I might be able to cover the Roidmudes' attacks, but I can't cover _yours_. You screw up, and I won't be there to save you." Tachibana said. Ross thought back to what Kelly said to him:

" _You're really messed if you think those monsters are heroes._ " Ross looked to Tachibana who nodded and walked off. Ross collapsed the Crescent Rose and put it on his back. As he followed him, he thought of his retort:

" _That's why I'm here. To make it better._ "


	4. Why Does Rainbow Dash Idolize Me?

Sometimes I wonder if I would have been better off as a Phys-Ed teacher instead of a professor. I mean, yeah, lab coat doesn't make for a good athletic outfit, but my experience as Gold Drive is only improving. Yeah, I'm learning a bit more about teaching weird science, but eventually that Bill Nye DVD is gonna fine a nice comfy home in the DVD player for the next week or two while I waste valuable time sitting in class.

Phys-Ed is more my turf. Hitting things, running, jumping. Heck, it's encouraged that you'd throw in a game of dodgeball. Best. Job. Ever. Well, I say this now as I observed the track and field. Not that I had a choice. It was, unfortunately, one of those days where the Roidmudes decided to hunt _me_ down.

"Alright, let's take her out on a spin!" I said as I rolled out the SunDriver across the Canterlot High soccer field. Fortunately, I was able to have the upper hand thanks in part to the SunDriver. Though, that said, while it has Shift Car capabilities, it's unable to hook up to the Ride Boosters, sidecars that would hook onto Drive's own ride: The Tridoron.

This is possibly in part due to me not being able to find said Ride Boosters. A shame, as the Roidmude attacking me was a Bat-Type. Those guys are pretty flighty. I know this because it lacks an Advanced Form. Because of this, I can see his Core printed on his chest: 051.

Banno tagged out for me in trade for using the Zenrin Shooter, though even with that, I was unable to hit him and knock him down.

" **Didn't my son have some sort of Shift Car to use for this sort of situation?** " Banno asked.

"Signal Bike, and yeah! Let me tag out." I turned the ignition and swapped out for Banno as a green, dirt bike styled device rolled up to him. He took it and put it in to the Shift Brace. He fired at the Roidmude. As the gold bullets began to curve, it seemed like they'd clip his wings, at least, but the Roidmude did a barrel roll and dodged out of the way.

" **Hmph. Smart one.** " Banno continued to fire several gold bullets, but it seemed the Roidmude was unable to be hit. Banno switched out as another Signal Bike entered my hand, as well as a Shift Car. I noticed the clown-like design on it. Amazing Circus. However, it wasn't summoned directly to me, but rather just went about its business, setting up a ramp for my ATV to ride up from planks of wood that it had on its back cargo. I prepared myself for launch as I loaded the next Signal Bike, a yellow sports bike with a pretty large STOP sign.

" **THE FINISHER! FULL THROTTLE!** "

I was launched into the air and with one swing of my arm, I fired a stream of lasers towards the Roidmude. I managed to score a direct hit on both of his wings as he spiraled down into the field. That's when I saw that he was about to crash into a crowd of about five people practicing soccer by the other side of the field.

"CRAP!" I said.

"Hang on! I got it!" Someone said. I then heard someone kick a soccer ball right to the Roidmude. The soccer ball knocked the Roidmude out of the way and onto the ground. I sighed in relief as the Roidmude got up and stumbled in a dizzy fit. "Alright, let's finish this!" I switched controls to Banno as a blue Formula-1 Shift Car came to Banno's hand. He placed the Shift Car into the Engine Dash.

" **FORMULA! ENGINE EXTENSION!** "

The SunDriver roared to life as it managed to pick up lots of speed. Soon, I could hear the wind whistle as my car managed to lift up a bit. I could almost see the wind get a blue hue to it. I speeded towards the Roidmude and rammed it with full force, destroying him and reducing his Core to nothing more than a smear on the SunDriver's hood. Banno got off as the crowd of people cheered for him.

" **Enjoy this will you can… For when I take back control of the Roidmudes, I'll-** "

"Zip it." I said. "We're already public enemy #1 for the Roidmudes, let's not gloat and make us public enemy #1 for the humans as well."

" **You have a point.** " Banno said. He turned on the ignition. " **Here, talk with these peons.** "

"Um…" That's when the first pair of the crowd came up to me. I knew instantly that they were twins from the way they looked. Not only that, but the way they had their hair pretty much screamed every other anime that involves twins.

"That was totally awesome!" One twin would have the rough, spiky hair to express what a free, rebellious spirit she is.

"Y-yeah. Keep up the nice work." And the other would have her hair be nice and even have a cute little bow on it to show how reserved she is.

"YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAH!" Then there's the guy who is practically begging for a failed drug test.

"What did you say your name was again? Golden Drive?" A bla… Okay. I'm just gonna stop myself here and distinguish that his skin is a dark gray, so that I can say a _dark gray_ person instead. A _dark gray_ guy with a cyan Mohawk scratched his head.

" _Gold_ Drive. It's just Gold Drive." I said.

"Hey! _I_ was the one who knocked down the monster!" Someone from my class said. I could simply tell from her hair just who she is in my class. Yep. Her long rainbow hair confirms it.

"Yeah, we saw, Rainbow, but Gold Drive did most of the work." The rough-haired twin said. "All _you_ did was kick a ball."

"S-seriously, Cloudchaser? That ball saved our lives!" She said. The Mohawk dude sighed.

"Rainbow Dash, you're always a bragger… Save it for when you win us another shiny silver cup." He said. As much as I would like to stick around and listen to the generic 'you'll never be as popular as so and so', I knew my time as Gold Drive would run out and I ran off.

* * *

"You know, if you're programmed to announce 'The Finisher' and 'Full Throttle', are you programed to give a post-battle one-liner?" It was the first question I asked when I got into the bathroom.

" **… What?** " Banno asked.

"You know, like… _Nice Drive!_ Or _Nice Work!_ " I tried my hardest to imitate both the Drive and Mach Drivers. Banno groaned as I got out of the Gold Drive suit.

" **Bah! Mediocre!** " Banno said.

"Seriously? That's the best you got?" I asked. That's when I heard a buzz. I whipped out my phone and noticed Applejack's text.

'Meet with me in the classroom after school.'

" **Well, time for our chat.** " Banno said. I let out a sigh.

"Perhaps… I could gain something out of this." I grin.

* * *

Sure enough, after school, Applejack was the only person sitting in my classroom. I sat on top of my desk and looked to her.

"Alright, Applejack. Have you heard of quid pro quo?" I asked.

"Is that something you eat?" Applejack asked.

"No. It means 'something for something' in Latin. Basically you scratch my back, I scratch yours. You give me information about this town and the residents, I tell you more about the Roidmudes. Truthfully." I said.

"Why would you want to know more about this place?" Applejack asked.

"Applejack, I just got here about a week or two ago. Roidmudes are constantly threatening not just me but everyone I remotely know. Rarity, Ms. Cheerilee, and the other girls on that field trip a while back all took a sick day right afterwards because of the Roidmudes that attacked them." I played out a theory in my head. Usually, after the metallic ringing reduces Voice's victims to a state of insanity, they go comatose. However, with Sculpt's power, they seemed to have a pretty reduced outcome. "I obviously don't know the lay of the land. _You_ do. It'd be effective if you help me with fighting the Roidmudes by providing information about this place. How about it?" I asked.

"Hmm… Well, alrighty, but you gotta tell me all you know about those robots." She said.

"So, what else do you wanna know?" I asked.

"How many of these Hemorrhoids are there?" Applejack asked.

" _Roidmudes_ , and there's about… one hundred and eight." I said.

"T-that many?" Applejack reclined to her seat as I drew out the number.

"Yeah, a pretty nice symbolic number for Banno to stop on." I said.

" **No… I stopped at one hundred and eight because three of my Roidmudes up and killed me before I could make more!** " Banno said.

"Wait, didn't you let yourself be killed?" I asked.

" **Well, that was the idea, but not until I made at least two hundred or more Roidmudes… They caught me by surprise and made me accelerate my plans a bit.** " Banno said.

"… Wait, you made them… and you got killed by them?" Applejack asked.

"The Roidmudes and him have a… past." Namely involving a cattle prod. "And that's it for your questions. Now you owe me two answers." I said.

"Fair enough." Applejack shrugged.

"First off… What can you tell me about Rainbow Dash?" I asked her. She glared.

"Well, she's self-centered, rude, brash, egotistical, and most certainly selfish. Not to mentio-"

"Alright, I get it, you don't like her. But what's her story? Some sort of jerk jock, right?" I asked.

"Yeah. Pretty much. She's the captain of the soccer team, captain of the football team, captain of the track and field… You name it, she captains it." Applejack said.

"Okay then. That's all I need to know." I walked off, though Applejack grabbed my hand before I got far.

"Hey, I don't know why you're so concerned with Rainbow, but watch out. She's the most treacherous person you will ever meet." Applejack said.

"… Meh, I've seen worse." I patted Banno.

" **H-Hey!** " Banno said.

"Oh hush up and take it as a compliment." I said as I left.

As I walked down the halls, Banno piped up. I took the effort to hide him under my labcoat.

" **I do have to agree with her though… Why** ** _are_** **you concerned with this girl?** " Banno asked me.

"…" I didn't want to say. To be truthful, I was going with a template most Kamen Riders I've seen go with. We focus on a random, one off character who has a problem that the Kamen Rider must solve. This can be someone was forced into an eating binge by a monster, a person who lost his passion playing piano, or a guy whose friend is possessed by a monster.

I fear that, following what happened with Rarity and the others, the next Roidmude encounter I face will have something to do with Rainbow Dash. However, I can't just tell Banno that I'm following what the show would do. Instead, I simply did what Banno would advise me to do and spoke a half-truth.

"I have a gut feeling."

* * *

Alarm bells rang as two men wearing ski masks ran out of the store in the middle of the night, a bag full of money in their hand.

"Thieves! Thieves!" An old man yelled from the store.

"Wow, I can't believe that worked!" One of the robbers said.

"Yeah, now let's get out of here before the cops show up!" The other robber said. Just then…

 **WHOOSH!**

"W-what was that!?"

"Why can't I run faster?!"

The two of them screamed as a masked figure swooped down. The figure had a feminine shape to her as her outfit was purple with a dark blue mask, cape, and tapings on her gloves and boots. She wore a matching fedora and had a golden bangle with a silver gear stuck in the middle.

"Alright, your days of robbin' people are loooong gone!" The masked female said. She took the two robbers and bonked them together. The two fell down slowly as she took the money and handed it back to the old man.

"D-don't hurt me!" He shielded himself with his arms.

"Relax, I'm only helping." She dropped the bag of money on the desk and ran off. As she was gone, the effects of the Slowdown waned and everything was back to normal, albeit with two knocked out robbers and a confused old man.

* * *

Morning came. Over my nights at the library, I discovered that this world has an internet. While I couldn't connect to my frequent sites without them being clones of very old sites (MySpace somehow became MyStable?), I was able to get onto some news sites. There, I could see if there's any stories that might have something to do with the Roidmudes. From what I could gather, the Roidmudes were doing what they were doing before.

So I looked for similar activities. From buildings mysteriously collapsing to electrical fires spreading out to a mysterious stalker protecting an idol, I tried to recall the past Roidmudes' activities and even those remotely close to it.

Part of me wanted Banno to be off my waist _not_ because it'd be a load off my back, but so that he could help me in the research. It seems, however, that he was just stuck in my belt. Throughout my time with him, he hadn't been able to do the crazy stuff he could have done, like use sharp tendrils to attack people or hijack vehicles.

But then I remember that he's already a loose cannon, even when he's trapped in Belt form, so I disregarded it. One of the articles I managed to get an interest in is a mysterious masked vigilante who had been appearing out of nowhere.

I was reminded of Judge, especially since I saw him a while back. This is definitely right up his alley. Masked vigilante who strikes out at criminals? I was tempted to search "Judge Time" to see if it _was_ going to be related to Judge. As I looked for that, I also looked around MyStable to see that this has created a bit of an urban legend.

"Dude, I heard that whenever she appears, time slows down to a crawl!"

"Spin around three times and say Mare-Do-Well six times. Time will stop for nine seconds."

"This is all true! I've seen her do it! She threw knives at a dude when time froze, and then she threw a road roller at him when time resumed!"

Sadly, it wasn't exactly like with Judge. This woman had Slowdown written all over her. The original Judge, the one the Roidmude tried to hunt down and kill, never had anything to allow him to invoke Slowdowns. However, it _did_ make me think that the vigilante is indeed a Roidmude. Before I closed off the site, my eye caught onto something. A group.

It was called the "Please Come Back, Silverbolt" Group. I sighed and remembered that I'm supposedly disguised as a denizen of this city. To them, I'm not Kelly Randall, but rather Jetstorm Silverbolt. I clicked on the group page and saw almost fifty people who have joined the group. I looked among the various people, but only two people stood out for me.

The first was the most recent person to join: Trenderhoof, who joined a week ago. About the same time when I fought Voice and Sculpt. Obviously, him seeing me in the flesh had him confused and has now joined the pseudo-petition to bring be back to Crystal Prep.

The second person that caught my eye only did so because of the ridiculous name than anything else. Please, don't ruin my mood by making me think of those stupid vampires! I closed off the site. Though before I left, I figured to create a little leverage for my next round with Applejack. I opened up Notepad and began to write up some info.

* * *

As the bells rang, I spotted Applejack in the hall. She was getting ready for her homeroom class. I approached her with a folded piece of paper in hand.

"Applejack." I said to her. She turned around.

"Yeah?" That's when I handed her the paper.

"What can you tell me about Crystal Prep?" I asked. Applejack took the paper and inspected it.

"What the hay is this? It's nothing but a string of numbers and some random words. What does zero-zero-one equals Freeze mean? And what does it have to do with memories or old men? And why would a Brain need a handkerchief?" She asked me.

"It's a list of the higher-ups who run the Roidmudes. I was unable to get a photo of each of them, so I'm making due with descriptions of them and also a brief description of how their powers work. That's my information for this exchange." I said.

"Well, mighty kind of you." She stowed the note away into her pocket. Doubt she's gonna check that again soon.

"I already know that Crystal Prep isn't that well-loved in here, and I think I have a base idea of why. What I want is your confirmation. Are they douchebags?" I asked.

"Yeah. Very much so. If you think Rainbow Dash is full of it, wait till you see Crystal Prep." She pointed to Rainbow Dash talking with several different people. "Every so often, we hold an event called the Friendship Games. It's a competition where Canterlot High and Crystal Prep see which school is better." Applejack said. I wanted to point out the irony, but I was too distracted with Rainbow Dash. She kept on talking about 'her' and I couldn't help but notice the bracelet…

It looked familiar.

"…And they keep winning every. Single. Year. It stops being the Friendship Games and more the 'Look At Crystal Prep' Games… Uh, you okay, Kel?" … Did she just 'Kel' me? Now I _wanted_ her to call me sugar cube. I appreciated it, however. It's nice for people to call me by my actual name rather than the fake one I got.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine. Thank you, AJ… Can I call you AJ?" I asked. She nodded. "Thank you." I stood there for a moment before walking over to Rainbow Dash to get a better listen.

" _You_ met Mare-Do-Well?!" One of the students asked.

"Yeah! I sure did! She handed me her super calling brace to prove it! In case I _ever_ get in trouble, I just have to twist it and SWOOSH! She'll arrive!" Rainbow Dash said while showing off the bracelet. _Twist_. That's what got my memory jogging. I approached Rainbow Dash. Most of the students didn't seem to mind me getting in on the conversation, and instead continued to chat.

"So… _How_ did you meet this Mare-Do-Well?" I glared at the bracelet as Rainbow Dash began to stammer.

"Oh… Well… I.. You see…" Rainbow Dash stammered as I rolled my eyes. "It was in the middle of the night, yeah! And um… I… was… in an alleyway! Yeah! That's it! A thief was about to rob me and she came out of the blue and-"

"That's all. Thank you." All I needed to find the _real_ story was to look at her bracelet. Yep. Sure enough, I knew which Roidmude produced the bracelet. I walked off as I heard Rainbow Dash continue to fabricate her story. Let her. I already know what she's talking about is rubbish. It was time for me to patrol the city.

* * *

Another night, another theft. Instead of store alarms, it was the blaring of a car alarm. The thief had no care whether or not the car was loud. She simply drove the car. She knew a shortcut where she could make a getaway…

 **WHOOSH!**

She saw a few sparkly lights and suddenly, the car was acting sluggishly. She tried to move around, but noticed that she was also slow.

"What the…" She wondered why she stopped when suddenly a masked vigilante walked up to her and opened the unlocked car door. She had no other response but to scream as the vigilante, unaffected by the sudden slowness, grabbed her and tossed her out of the car. The car took a while to slow down to a complete halt, though the Mare-Do-Well had other things on her mind, like stringing up the prep to dry.

"Alright! Prepare to face justice from the Mysterious Mare-Do-Well!" She took out some hemp rope and unraveled it to tie up the woman to a nearby lamppost, or even a trashcan. … Yeah, trashcans are more poetic for her.

"P-please! Stop!" The woman's tears fell in slow-motion as the Mare-Do-Well was about to put the rope onto her hands when a red blob struck her. Time resumed, and as it did, the blob picked up speed and flew upwards towards a rooftop. The blob dropped the Mare-Do-Well off on the rooftop as it landed. Its red shell came apart, revealing it to be a long red cape attached to a hood.

The person wearing the hood, Ross, took out Crescent Rose as it unfurled into scythe mode.

"Alright, Roidmude, I'm pretty sure you've heard this before, so I'll sum up. Ya dun goofed and I see it as my duty to defeat you and let the higher ups reset you." Ross said.

"W-what are you talking about?" Mare-Do-Well struggled to get up, though the force of the hit knocked the wind out of her.

"Oh come on. _Every_ Roidmude knows about the Grim Reaper, right? The guy who stops Roidmudes from being _too_ much of a threat to everyone else?" Ross walked towards her. She ripped off her mask, revealing her face to him. He stopped, only because it took him a while to register the long rainbow colored hair and her shrunken pupils of fear.

"P-please! Don't hurt me… I was only trying to protect people…" Rainbow Dash said.

"… Protect people?" Ross sighed. He grabbed Rainbow Dash by the back of her costume and dragged her to the edge, within a bird's eye view of the carjacker she tried to arrest. "You see that woman there?" Rainbow Dash could see her break down into tears as cop cars began to arrive. "She doesn't feel safe. She doesn't feel protected. I notice something whenever Slowdowns happen. People are scared. They feel powerless. Roidmudes like you may think of yourselves as heroes, but really, you're nothing but bullies trying to assert your authority." He could hear Rainbow Dash whimper.

"I… I wasn't trying to do that… I… I just wanted to be cool!" With that, Rainbow Dash began to cry. Ross looked down and noticed the cops looking around for the source of the noise. Among them was Tachibana, who simply shot a glance up to Ross. Ross nodded and grabbed Rainbow Dash. With a quick sprint, they were already two rooftops away from the cops.

"Start talking." Ross pointed his weapon at Rainbow Dash as it shifted into a rifle.

"A-alright! There's this dude called Gold Drive who is super awesome! He fights these monsters on a daily basis and he's just so awesome! B-but people found him to be better than I am! I… I wanted to be cool like him… So…" She lifted her wrist to show off the bracelet. "I got this and got a cool superpower from it. I just thought I could protect people with it… They'd probably think of me on the same level as Gold Drive." Rainbow Dash frowned.

"… Wait, you said you got the Slowdown thing from a bracelet?" Ross leaned in. "Who gave you this?" He asked.

"I… I can show you, if you want. But… I don't want you to tell anyone." Rainbow Dash got a folded piece of paper and showed it to him. "A guy gave me this. It's instructions of how to get a bracelet." Ross read the instructions.

"Huh… Alright. I can do this. Listen, if you _really_ want to be a hero, you'll come with me. I'll show you what a Grim Reaper… no… What a _Huntsman_ can do." Ross patted Rainbow Dash on the shoulder, who looked to him and smiled.

* * *

I sat inside an old, beaten up Camaro. The kind you see in a Shia Labeouf film. I sipped from the hot cup of coffee as I looked around by a local billiard bar known as The Rabbit Hole. It was a shady place from what I could gather, though I only knew of the place thanks to my informant.

"They really should call this place The Rat Nest." Wind Rider said. After the incident with Voice and Sculpt, Wind Rider handed me his number in case anything were to happen. It was one of those cases where something _did_ happen.

"So, you say drug dealers come by every so often?" I asked.

"Yeah. When the mood strikes them. And when they're strapped for cash. This was where I took Soarin' on his first day on the job. The low-life, dime-a-dozen thugs who prop up here are easy pickings for rookies." Wind Rider said.

"Well, I have the gut feeling like we might take on something more than a simple thug." I peered out of the window.

"You never _did_ tell me about those Roidmudes. All I know about them is that they're making a fuss." Wind Rider said.

"They're killer, time-stopping robots who disguise themselves as humans and plan secret revolutions and genocides." Sometimes I wonder why I don't just say _that_ to my students rather than dance around the topics.

"Well, there _has_ to be more to the story than that." Wind Rider said. To be fair, he had a point. I had to bring up how they weren't _all_ psychopathic. Some of them genuinely wanted to help humanity and others viewed their species as their closest friends. I frown though. For every time I remember a Roidmude who was kind to humanity, I think of two more who had at least half a dozen causalities under their belt.

I had to address the elephant in the room, however.

"Not _all_ of them are bad. I don't know if they're still around, but there are Roidmudes who don't want to kill every human. You just have to find them. They're… diamonds in the rough." I said. That's when I spotted someone. Two people in fact. A person in a red hood and…

A rainbow-haired girl.

"Show time." I got out of the car.

"H-hey! Wait up!" Wind Rider said. I could see the hooded man hold up two flowers, one white and another red. Yes. This was it. A door leading to a shack just below the Rabbit Hole opened up. With quick running, I entered the door before it closed, though I wasn't sure if Wind Rider made it in too.

* * *

As I got in, I noticed that Rainbow Dash and the mysterious red hood disappeared. I could see rose petals fluttering to the ground though.

"… Ross." I remembered that edgy Little Red Riding Hood cosplayer. I stepped carefully and had my finger and thumb pressed against the Ignition. As I inched closer and closer to the center of the shack, I heard a conversation.

"What are you doing back here?" A young sounding man said. He definitely gave me that snake oil salesman idea.

"Sorry, my friend wanted to get a hold of your bracelets." My heart pounded as I heard Rainbow Dash's voice.

"Atatatatatatat! I can't just give it to anyone. Besides, you haven't paid off for _your_ bracelet!" He said. I sighed in a vain attempt to calm myself. Yep. It's 018.

"Is it true? You sell bracelets that allow a person to invoke a Slowdown?" I heard Ross speak next.

"Yes, I- Wait, how did you-" As soon as I heard the sound of mechanical whirring, I instantly realized what was going to happen. I ran forth.

* * *

"G-Grim Reaper! Oh please, spare me!" A man greased back red and white hair wearing a blue-striped shirt, jeans, and a simple barber-shop quartet hat tripped over and fell on his bottom. He squirmed as Ross held Crescent Rose on his back.

"Ross, what's going on?" Rainbow Dash asked. As he stepped forward, he had shivers be sent up his spine. The cock of the gun, while sounded distant, still had the same impact of stopping Ross as if the gun was held point blank to his head. Mainly because he heard that distinct cock before.

"Lower your weapon, Ross." An African American cowboy came out from the shadows. He casually held a revolver pointed towards Ross.

"… Gunman. I presume this is your little brother?" Ross asked as he furled up the scythe into an inactive rectangle shape and put it behind his back where a pocket safely snugged it.

"Yes. I apologize for leaving you in the dark." Gunman lowered his weapon. "But I can't explain everything just yet. Because right now," he pointed a gun towards Rainbow Dash, "it's time for this lady to pay up."

"I… I don't have the money yet!" Rainbow Dash stepped back and shielded herself.

"Well, don't worry. We have an idea of how you can pay us off." Gunman tossed her a revolver. "In exchange for the bracelet, we want you to capture or even _kill_ the Kamen Rider."

"W-what?" Rainbow Dash grabbed the revolver, though she looked at it, unsure of what to do. Ross stepped forward.

"Gunman! You're using a human to do your dirty work?!" Ross asked.

"Huh. Funny talk coming from _you_. Did you ever tell that girl that who you were working for?" Gunman smirked.

"I… What's a Kamen Rider?" Rainbow Dash asked. Gunman continued his smirking as he aimed his gun towards Rainbow Dash.

"You're about to find out." And with that, he fired at her.

* * *

"Henshin!" I cried out as I leaped into the air to knock Rainbow Dash out of the way of the oncoming shot. Thankfully, the armor formed just before the bullet impacted me, though my body staggered back.

" **Ow! Hey! Let me know when you transform next time!** " Banno said.

"I just did! You know, me saying the word Henshin?"

" **Whatever… This is your fight.** " Banno turned the Ignition. The Golden Drive's eyes changed to the natural white as the Door Gun materialized from the same digital miasma that formed the suit. I pointed at Gunman.

"Drop the gun." I demanded. Gunman bent his knees low to the ground as he dropped the revolver gently. He got up with his hands raised.

"Very well. I won't be the one who'll shoot you anyways." Gunman said.

"Hmm?"

"Come on, girl… It's time to pay your debt." Gunman pointed to Rainbow Dash, though I already knew that she purchased the bracelet… wait… Pay your debt?

"You… You want me to shoot Gold Drive!?" She asked. "No way!" She tried to throw the revolver onto the ground, but as she was about to, the bracelet began to spark. She retracted her arm in pain. "Gaaah!" She cried.

"And this is why you always read the fine print, dearie." Gunman said. "So long as my brother's bracelet is on your arm, don't expect to take it off any time soon." I ran over to pull the bracelet out, but it began to spark again. This time my hands were also shocked. "Don't bother. My little brother's been working on these bracelets for a while. These are top-of-the-line compared to the last ones he made. You can't hope to take them off."

My body went cold as I instinctively turned the Ignition. I hated myself for even considering _this_ to be a solution… I didn't have the heart to go through with it. I had no choice though. I switched out to Banno as he got the Steering Sword. It took Banno a few seconds before he began to cackle.

" **Great minds think alike! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!** " He swung the Steering Sword upwards, then struck downwards onto Rainbow Dash's arm. Either he could attempt breaking the bracelet with the sword or chop off Rainbow Dash's arm. Knowing the psychopath, I closed my eyes and prepared for him to take the latter option.

 **CLANG!**

However, I heard a clang instead of a scream. I opened my eyes and saw Ross blocking the sword with his scythe.

"Stop it." Ross softly said. The bracelet began to spark up again as Rainbow Dash keeled over in pain. She clutched the bracelet, but no matter how hard she tried to squeeze it, she couldn't crush it.

"What's wrong? I thought the reason you wanted that bracelet was so that you could be like the Kamen Rider?" Gunman said. "This would have been right up your alley. Not only would you get to be a superhero, but also you'd be able to replace the very person you wanted so much to be."

"I… know… but… I can't just… betray my idol like this!" Rainbow Dash struggled to get up, but every time she did, the bracelet continued to spark and zap her wrist. "Even though he takes all the attention… I look up to him. When I became Mare-Do-Well… He was the reason I chose to protect people! I wanted to be just like him!" She said.

"So… you refuse to kill the Rider then?" Gunman said.

"Y-yeeaaaaaargh!" Rainbow Dash kept screaming. I was thankful that Banno was took control over my body, otherwise I'd just give up.

"Very well. It'll be enjoyable to watch you die along with your little hero. Grim Reaper, go ahead and finis-" That's when Banno shot Ross in the gut a dozen times.

" **Oh, I'm sorry. Did I break your Grim Reaper?** " Banno looked at Ross and noticed that there was no wound. " **What the?** "

"Did you truly think we'd let a mere human be our Grim Reaper?" Gunman said. Ross, while unharmed, still clutched onto where he was shot for a brief moment before he stood up again. "He's able to take a beating, have no marks to show for it, _and_ still be able to run circles around you. Coupled with his speed, and he's become just as effective as our previous Grim Reaper."

" **Heh… You forgot something, though. All humans have a breaking point.** " With that, Banno switched controls over to me as I got the Shift Technic and Zenrin Shooter, though the Shooter replaced the Sword. I loaded Technic into the Shift Brace as an HUD activated in my vision. I saw a strange red flame over Ross. I fired at Ross and noticed the flame began to shrink. " **See? We just need to deplete whatever it is that's protecting your new toy. We already took out half of it, it seems.** " I began to spoke up.

"Aura. We'll call it Aura." I remembered the aura that the characters had when they powered up in _Dragonball Z_ and figured it was a nice name for this… force.

"Heh… Well then. Let's see who's the fastest gun here. Draw." With that, Gunman transformed into his Roidmude form, mirroring that of his human form, though more metallic than normal. He took out his gun as Ross transformed his scythe into a sniper rifle. I held up the two guns. Rainbow Dash's pained groans kept the atmosphere from getting _too_ quiet. My fingers hovered over the triggers. Any moment now, Ross or Gunman would open fire, and I'd have to fight for not just my life, but also Rainbow Dash's. I couldn't switch over to Banno without having to sacrifice one of my weapons _or_ my free will. I just had to stand and wait.

I pointed one gun at Gunman and another on Ross. I looked into Ross' eyes. I remembered how Ross fought me back at the museum and how he fired shot after shot at me. The metal casings that were discarded helped break me out of Voice's control. However, I wasn't sure if Ross was deliberately fired at me to snap me out of it or if he was really just incompetent. But one look from his eyes told me enough.

It confirmed my suspicions. I slowly pointed the Zenrin Shooter towards Gunman and fired both of them at the same time. As that happened, Ross fired, not at me or Gunman, but at 018. As he fell over, the shocks on Rainbow Dash's arm stopped and she was given time to breathe.

"You…" Gunman growled as he fired at me. I fired back. Several bullets clashed at each other while I rolled to the corner and behind a crate to avoid the other bullets. I could hear more gunfire, so I poked my head out of the crate to notice that Ross and Gunman were firing at each other. Ross swung his scythe on the ground, using the curve of it to propel himself to a scaffolding where he landed. He transformed the scythe to what looked to be a sniper rifle and fired some more bullets at 018.

018 simply transformed into his Roidmude form. I was surprised that it wasn't his modified Spider-Class form, but rather a fully-fledged Advanced Roidmude form similar to Gunman's, save for the fact that his hat was more pointed and that instead of a gun, his hands held rings. He threw one of the rings, which caused it to explode in a flash of light. Suddenly, everything slowed down for a brief moment. However, it was that brief moment that allowed Gunman to rush out and fire at Ross.

Ross had no time to dodge them and although I knew that the aura could protect him from the bullets, I screamed out for him.

However, the next moment had those bullets cut up, though a few have hit a target that went in front of Ross. I saw the green and black kendo stick and recognized the Roidmude that saved Ross.

"Judge!" I shouted.

"Tachibana!" Ross said as Judge staggered.

"Ross… you fool…" Tachibana whispered out. I was able to catch that as I still had the Technic Shift Car in the Brace.

"I should have known having a human on our side was bad news… Kill him, Judge, then let's kill the Kamen Rider together!" Gunman said. Judge simply stood there.

"Let the girl go first. If she is killed, there'd be no way I can cover this up." Judge said.

"No one knows we exist. And if we kill these two… they will never find out." Gunman pointed his gun to me as I ducked behind.

"You underestimate humanity and their determination." Judge said.

"And how would you know?" Gunman said.

"Because I've synchronized with their twisted sense of justice: revenge. If you kill her, there's no going back." Judge said.

"Well… Guess I'm gonna have to call your bluff." Gunman said as he pointed the gun back towards Rainbow Dash.

 **BEEP BEEP BEEP**

The sound of Gold Drive's powering down rang in my ears. I had to switch out, though it was a good time as any. I turned the Ignition and Banno took control. The Shift Cars he got were partners. I figured it'd be sensible to send them out considering he'd be going akimbo. Dream Vegas inserted itself into the Door Gun while Dimension Cab plugged itself into the Zenrin Shooter. Predictably, he fired at both Judge and Gunman, Door Gun on Judge, Zenrin Shooter on Gunman. Judge continued to deflect the bullets fired at him while Gunman shot them out with his own gun. Eventually, Gunman shot the Door Gun out of Banno's hand and Judge punched forward to fire taser-style prongs at Banno.

While I couldn't feel my body, I can get a sense of how painful it is with the way the armor and the body jerked around from the shock. Of course, electricity wouldn't fit well with a robotic suit. However, the additional electricity caused the suit to glitch up. I saw in the HUD how it began to break apart into bits of code for brief moments at a time.

I could feel my fingers twitching. Perhaps the electricity was short circuiting the Tridoron programming. I moved my wrist up to try and confirm it. I could feel some mechanical resistance, but it was an improvement compared to previous times when Banno took control. By the moment my hand reached the Ignition, I lost control of my hand and it automatically seized up, turning it in the process.

I was back in control. I immediately pull Shift Technic out of the Brace and placed Dimension Cab into it. The red circuit on my chest flared up as a golden portal opened next to me. I snickered and reached into the portal with one of my arms. As soon as I grabbed the Door Gun, I pulled my hand out of the portal and fired it towards Judge quickly and suddenly. The bullets fired turned into large coins. Judge tried to deflect them, but due to their size, he was quickly knocked off the scaffolding.

I turned my attention to Gunman, who fired at me. I rushed to hide behind another crate while he pursued. With one leap, I jumped out of hiding and fired off a few more giant gold coins at Gunman. He leaped back and shot them down. As I landed, I unplugged Dimension Cab from the Shift Brace and plugged it back onto the Zenrin Shooter.

" **THE FINISHER! FULL THROTTLE!** "

I fired the Zenrin Shooter up into the air. As the bullets reached the top, a small portal opened up. Behind Gunman, the bullets flew out and struck his back. As I got up, I swing the Zenrin Shooter right at Gunman's face.

" **ZENRIN!** "

And slashed his hat off. He staggered as his forehead smoked from the attack. I ran to continue my attack, though Judge ran in and blocked my Zenrin Shooter with his kendo stick.

"What are you _doing_ here?" He whispered to me.

"I could ask the same for you lot…" I muttered.

"I had no knowledge of this operation taking place!" Judge tried to push the Zenrin Shooter off of me.

"Likely story!" I simply rolled the wheel off the stick.

" **ZENRIN!** "

And slashed across, break. While it didn't break anything, it did knock the Roidmude into a pile of crates where it fell on top of him. I looked and saw 018 getting up. As he did, Rainbow Dash also got up. I could see tiny bolts of electricity zapping her wrist as she tried to pull away.

"I'm… Sorry…" Rainbow Dash said.

"… Me too." I turned the ignition as Banno took over. Banno aimed and shot a bullet. I saw the bullet as it soared to Rainbow Dash… Only for the bullet to enter a small gold portal and hit 018 on the other side.

" **Judge is correct. If she were to die here, there'd be an investigation. I might be cruel, but even** ** _I_** **know there's a time and a place for it.** " Banno grabbed a Shift Car that had flown right for him. As 018 got up, Ross appeared behind him and slashed him with his scythe.

"I'll keep this guy busy! Tachibana, get the girl out of here!" Ross said. Judge nodded and ran to get Rainbow Dash, but Gunman fired at him and shot him down.

"I'm not letting _anyone_ here live. Roidmude, human, doesn't matter." Gunman reloaded and pointed his gun at Judge. "Our revolution against humanity is going to hit high noon soon. It'll be a shame for you all to miss it." That's when Banno laughed.

" **No… It'll be a shame for** ** _you_** **to miss** ** _my_** **revolution!** " With that, Banno loaded his Shift Car into the Door Gun, taking out Dream Vegas.

" **THE FINISHER! AMAZING CIRCUS! FULL THROTTLE!** " He fired a bullet at Gunman which exploded into fireworks. As Gunman was knocked to the ground, Banno fired the Zenrin Shooter onto the ground. Each bullet disappeared into their own portal and reappeared on the ground where Gunman was. The bullets shot into Gunman, essentially juggling him in place as Banno spun the wheel of the Zenrin Shooter a few times. He ran and leaped.

" **ZENRIN!** " And slashed downwards. While the resulting clash didn't destroy the Roidmude, it caused a huge gash to appear over his back, complete with smoking. Banno looked up and saw Ross wrap himself in his hood while pushing 018 out of the way.

"B-brother!" Gunman shouted before Banno kicked him in the face.

" **I'm going to enjoy making you suffer…** " Banno said as he fired several point-blank blasts at Gunman, each one destroying a part of his face in the process. I couldn't look away. I couldn't close my eyes. I had no control over my view. I thought back to my chat with Wind Rider. About how the Roidmudes were genocidal… Seeing Banno essentially torture one just… It made my stomach churn.

Eventually, Banno kicked him in the gut so hard, he skidded right into some fallen crates. As Gunman got up, he reloaded his gun and rushed to Banno. Banno just laughed as he plugged Dream Vegas into the Shift Brace. He pressed the red button as his circuitry tire flashed. It turned into three diagonal slot machines. They rolled until Banno pressed the button again. One by one, the wheels stopped, landing on the number seven. The three sevens each glowed as Banno aimed his guns.

" **THE FINISHER! VEGAS… CAB… CIRCUS! FULL… THROTTLE!** " He shouted as Gunman reached him. He tried to shoot at Banno, though Banno simply pushed his arm away with his own, firing the Zenrin Shooter as he did. As Gunman attempted to pull away and point at him again, Banno simply blocked the gun with his other gun, and fired. After that, Banno and Gunman just simply did this over and over again, at a pace so fast I couldn't keep up. Eventually, the gunfire stopped as Banno simply kicked Gunman in the gut. As it knocked him away, I noticed a large gold portal appearing behind him as several hundred bullets came flying out.

"W-WHAT!?" Were all that Gunman said before he collided with the barrage. All the bullets exploded at separate intervals, each creating a fabulous firework array. Eventually, all of them exploded in a huge ball of light and sparks, before fading out in a sparkly **017**. It lasted a bit before the number faded away. I sighed. Though that's when I heard the sparking of the bracelet again.

Rainbow Dash began to scream louder.

* * *

Ross pushed 018 out into a long narrow hallway as he unwrapped himself from the cape. He unfolded his scythe and rushed to him, cutting into the Roidmude's arms several times in the matter of seconds before finishing things off with a sniper blast square in the chest. As 018 stumbled, he chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Ross asked. 018 held up a ring.

"So long as I'm standing, that girl will suffer a painful death." He said.

"Then I guess I'll have to stop you." Ross readied the Crescent Rose. Before he ran though, 018 threw another ring, exploding in a shower of light as Ross's legs faltered.

"You're not going anywhere. You're just going to stand there and listen as she dies." 018 began to laugh as Ross grunted. Before long, 018's laughter was cut short. "Hurk!" Ross could see a kendo stick emerging from 018's stomach as electrical sparks emitted from both the wound and the stick. As the stick was pulled out, 018 fell limply to the floor, exploding a mere second after he fell completely. It took a while before his Core exploded as well.

* * *

Rainbow Dash soon stopped screaming as the bracelet finally popped off Rainbow Dash's arm. Banno turned the ignition as Mad Doctor rolled by, the two guns and their Shift Cars fading out in blur of gold. I grabbed it and placed it into the Shift Brace. My hands glowed with golden energy as I grabbed her wrist.

"Hang in there, girl. You did a good job today." I said. Suddenly, I heard a long, slow clap. I looked around and tried to find the source of the noise.

"I could say the same for you…" I heard an odd voice echo throughout the warehouse.

* * *

As the smoke cleared, Ross could see Judge for a brief moment before he shifted back into his human guise. Tachibana could only scowl as Ross him holding one side of his chest. A side where he was shot at the most.

"Tachibana!" Ross said.

"…" Tachibana shook his head and haggardly walked away.

"Wait! Tachibana!" Ross tried to follow him, only for Tachibana to speak up.

"Goddamn it, Ross! Don't you realize what's going on?" Tachibana asked.

"W-what are you talking about?" Ross asked.

"Why else did they give the bracelet to a girl from Canterlot High? It wasn't to just lure Banno… But also to lure _us_. We've been set up!"

"What!?"

* * *

Eventually, the clapping man showed himself. At first, I didn't recognize him. He just seemed like a regular old yakuza mob boss… That's when I realized that a yakuza being in a mostly American-themed town didn't mesh well.

Then he tipped his sunglasses to the bridge of his nose, to the point where his eyes were showing. At that point, both Banno and I knew who he was.

"006…" I said.

"Glad to know I don't need to hide behind a phony human name… unlike our traitorous friend Judge." He took off his glasses and shrugged as his human body dissolved in a miasma of gray and gold. As his Cobra-type Roidmude body appeared, the number **006** flashed outwards.

" **Ah, it's such a loving reunion to be had. You must be a little jealous of my new host…** " Banno said.

"Sadly, I was too busy being dead to care about it." He said.

" **I** ** _would_** **arrange it so we could be together again, but sadly, I can't get off of my host.** " Banno said.

"Oh don't worry. We'll be able to pry you off of her corpse… _after_ we destroy _you_ , of course." The Roidmude stepped closer.

" **W-we both know how this song and dance will end! You're just a pushover compared to Heart!** " Banno said.

"Heart? Oh… I guess you haven't heard. After we were reborn, many of us recalled our memories. And needed to say, _none_ of us were pleased that our leader's last moments were spent making friends with the very enemy he vowed to rule over." A part of me shivered as I remembered that tragic moment. Another part of me shivered as I began to piece together what must have happened to Heart. "Care to guess who managed to overthrow that traitor?" He gestured towards himself.

"No…" I muttered as 006 closed in on me.

"Yes. It was all me. I defeated Heart, and now, _I'm_ the one calling the shots!" 006 said.

" **Like hell you are! Kelly, get ready. This fight can be over in a flash if you don't hold back.** " Banno said.

"Yes, don't hold back…" 006 stopped walking when he got very close to my face. "Because I won't." With that, his body began to shift again. I stepped back and propped up my fists. I didn't need to be told that 006 was now going to reveal his Advanced form to me.

And much like when he tried to show it off before, he liked to gloat about it first.

"Behold! The power that surpassed Heart! My true form!" 006 said. I threw a punch towards him as it glowed with golden energy. That's when 006 grabbed my fist and punched me square in the gut. Suddenly, all the joints in my body suddenly seized up as I fell over. My muscles cramped up and I couldn't move. As I hit the ground, my armor disappeared and I was back to my labcoat.

" **Kelly! What's going on!?** " Banno said. All I could do was look at 006's Advanced body. His body was a dark blue with a series of thick, brass gold lines streaming down from the top of his chest to both his wrists and ankles. His face kept his cocky smile that he had in human form, though the top part of the head was obscured by two long brass gold tubes, with two large blue eyes mirroring that of his sunglasses.

"All this time, I have been holding back my power until the time felt right. As a result, I lost my life. Now with a second chance, I'm not gonna hesitate to show off. Banno, I would like for you to witness this for yourself. Your host's body is going through a shock throughout their nervous system, rendering them unable to fight. As you might guess, my name from now on is Nerve." He said. Suddenly, 006's body began to glow a gold color.

" **It can't be!** " Banno shouted. Golden energy was glowing on 006, or Nerve as he likes to be called now… Gold energy. The very energy that Banno and I shared. To Roidmudes, it's a special power that only a select few have: those who have gone beyond merely Advanced Evolution and are able to transform into a more powerful version of it. I had every right to shout no as well, but my body was too busy being frozen to say anything.

"Heh… So you noticed… I had felt this power when I defeated Heart… but it wasn't enough. The emotion that is giving me this power is an overwhelming sense of superiority. Killing Heart simply started the progress… And now you're gonna finish it. It's like I said before… You're the stepping stone to my Ultimate Evolution! Goodbye, Banno!" Nerve said as he threw his fist towards me.

* * *

"So what do we do now?" Ross asked Tachibana.

"We? _We_ do nothing. As far as I know, we're compromised and I'm not in the right condition to continue this." Judge said.

"I'm sorry!" Ross tried to keep up with him, but Tachibana simply held his hand out.

"Don't… They forced my hand too. The best we can do now is lie low…" With that, he stumbled out to a door and open it. "Ross… don't do anything stupid. Okay?" And he left. Ross simply slumped to his knees and sighed.

* * *

I closed my eyes and braced for impact, though to my surprise, someone stopped Nerve from hitting me. I opened and saw Rainbow Dash holding him back.

"Leave her alone!" She shouted.

" **Idiot! You're going to get yourself killed!** " Banno shouted.

"I don't care!" Rainbow Dash said. "Ever since I first saw Gold Drive, I thought of how awesome he is and how I wanted to be his closest friend! I'm not going to betray him… and I'm certainly not going to let him die!" With that, Rainbow Dash managed to pull Nerve away from me and grabbed me. "Come on, let's go!" She said.

"No… You're not going anywhere!" Nerve shouted as the gold energy surrounding him exploded. Time slowed to a crawl. I noticed the Mad Doctor Shift Car within my reach. The car rolled right into my hand, but before my fingers could touch it, Nerve kicked it away. "And no Shift Car will save you…" Nerve said. Just before he could move, though, I heard Rainbow Dash yell. Suddenly, there was a large flash of rainbow light as something grabbed me. Before I knew it, I was taken out of the room in the matter of seconds. I couldn't notice though, as everything turned into a blur. It was only when the blurring stopped that I realized what happened.

* * *

Rainbow Dash somehow picked me up and ran out of the room at a speed comparable to a jet plane. I was in her arms as she panted heavily.

"Hey, Professor… How's that for track and field?" She chuckled before she collapsed, dropping me with her. It was here that I managed to regain control of my body.

"What the hell happened?" I muttered.

" **You can ask me the same thing… That girl managed to outrun Nerve's Slowdown…** " As Banno said that, I had a thought. I turned the ignition and transformed into Gold Drive. The Shift Technic car drove to my hand as I plugged it into the Shift Brace.

That's when Banno and I saw a cyan colored flame surrounding Rainbow Dash, exactly in the same style as Ross' flame.

"I knew it… She has Aura as well…" I recalled how Ross' power… his 'Semblance', as he called it, was also able to outmaneuver the Slowdown. That's when I heard sirens. Police cars began to drive up to the Rabbit Hole. I noticed Wind Rider standing by.

" **Hmph… We'll have to take our business elsewhere.** " Banno edged his fingers towards the Ignition, but I spoke up.

"No… I'm not letting the Roidmudes fall upon deaf ears. They need to know." I said.

" **If you haven't noticed, cops are piling in. We got off lucky last time, but we might not have that same luck again.** " Banno said.

"Even so… I'm not letting another one of my students get hurt by these monsters. If I can help the police shed some light on this… If I can help them take care of the Roidmudes… then I don't care what happens to me." As I said that, my armor went away as I held up my hands.

"So… You're the Golden Drive the rumors have told about?" Spitfire came out. I nodded.

" _Gold_ Drive. And I have information that I'll share with all of you." No more secrets, no more half-truths. Applejack was right. It would be a lot better if I turned myself in. Now that they have more of an idea of what they're dealing with, I could possibly get away with telling them more details. _Especially_ if they let Wind Rider in on the details.

That's when I saw Wind Rider and Soarin'. I always noticed Soarin' was a happy guy when I spoke with him, so seeing him glaring at Wind Rider was… unnerving.

Especially with what he said.

"Wind Rider, you gotta stop this. While we appreciate the help, intervening in our cases is only going to worsen your reputation… I have faith in your pride as a former officer." Soarin' walked away from Wind Rider with a pat on the shoulder. For some reason, seeing this made my legs wobble. Spitfire had to shove me into the backseat of her car.

"Come on, you have a lot of explaining to do…" Spitfire said. As the car drove off, I swore that I saw Ross standing on the rooftop of the Rabbit Hole before he disappeared in a flurry of rose petals.

* * *

The door broke open as Tachibana stumbled into the room. A loud mixture of different animal noises muted Tachibana's pained gasps as he fell onto the floor, his blood dripping onto the tile floor. He laid in the dark room for a moment before the lights turned on. He heard a door opposite to him open up.

"Hello?" A girl's voice echoed. "Anyone he-" She stepped closer until she saw the cop on the ground. "Oh my!" She ran over to him and helped him up. "M-Mr. Tachibana! What happened?" She asked. Tachibana could only breathe as the girl with long pink hair and cyan eyes sat him down. As soon as she saw the wound, she frowned.

"I'll go get my mom… wait here, okay?" With that, she ran off as Tachibana passed out.

* * *

Ross hopped across from rooftop to rooftop. He knew exactly what his next move was going to be:

The main stronghold where the Roidmudes resided…


	5. When Will The Surprise Happen?

_Ross wandered through the halls of the Austin Convention Center. He could hear the sounds of cameras snapping as people commented on his outfit. Such is the life of a cosplayer. He put a lot of time and effort not only replicating Ruby's alternate costume in Volume 2, but also modifying it for a guy to wear. The only thing he didn't have time for were getting silver-eyed contacts or dying his hair black with red highlights. But that's how life is. And quite frankly, he's pretty okay with not looking 1:1 with Ruby Rose._

 _He was hoping to at least visit some of Rooster Teeth's members. Sadly, he couldn't meet the legend, Monty Oum, in the flesh. But at least he could make up for it with meeting Lindsey or Miles._

 _"Hello there, m'dear." Ross turned around to see a man sitting behind a table. His eyes instantly glued themselves to the assortment of items he had. There were several funky looking guns laid down on the left side of the table of various. Ross only played the series a brief bit, but even he knew that these were the Covenant weapons from the Halo games. However, on the other side, his jaw dropped as he saw several weapons from the RWBY series._

 _Ross began to look at each of them. They looked so shiny that they could definitely be the real thing. But what he liked especially is that, sitting behind the man, was a large, red scythe._

 _"Oh… woow…" Ross said. The man in the fedora looked behind him._

 _"You like it?" He asked._

 _"Yeah!" Ross said._

 _"It matches with your red cape." He said._

 _"It's a hood. You know, like Little Red Riding Hood?" Ross asked._

 _"Oh. Well, that's interesting to know. Tell you what, I'll give this to you for a discounted price." The man in the fedora said._

 _"… How_ much _will you discount it for?" Ross asked._

 _"For you? Hm… 90% off the price tag." The man flicked the price tag of $250. Ross did a bit of mental math in his head, then pulled the wallet out of his pants pocket and took out both a twenty dollar bill and a five dollar bill. "Perfect! Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of this one of a kind scythe." The man took the Crescent Rose and handed it to Ross. He looked at the weapon._

 _Up close, it didn't seem to be made from any PVC materials or cheap metal plating like he saw in most Crescent Roses that people made. This instead looked authentic metal. He also noticed the shining blade on the scythe. Ross ran his finger over the blade's edge. He didn't feel anything. No sharpness or anything. He looked at his finger to make sure. There was no cut._

 _"Just so you know… This covers_ more _than just your weapon…" He smiled._

 _"W-what do you mean?" Ross asked as he rested Crescent Rose over his shoulder. That's when he felt woozy as a flash of white light overwhelmed him._

 _"You just paid the price for your adventure." It was the last thing he heard before he blacked out._

* * *

I sat right back at the interrogation room. Spitfire chewed bubble-gum right at my face as she wore those freakishly large aviator glasses. I just sat there, elbows on the table as I leaned in.

"Are you recording?" I asked.

"We always do." Spitfire said.

"Good, because you may need to hear this again and again." I muttered. I cleared my throat. "Several years ago, a professor named Tenjuro Banno created cybernetic beings known as Roidmudes."

"Ah, here we go with the cheesy robot movies. When do the robots rebel?" She asked.

"Sometime after they murdered Banno. These robots are nothing like you've seen. They're fierce. They're merciless. Give them the chance, and in a single night, they could kill you and everyone else in a kilometer radius in the matter of seconds." Well, provided they all just slow down time simultaneously and attack all at once, but details…

"So, you're saying they're… more than meets the eye?" Spitfire smirked.

"Yeah. And they have an ability to copy the appearance of human beings. The worst part is, they could be walking among us, waiting for a chance to strike." I said.

"Ah, so they're pretty much… robots in disguise." I could hear Spitfire snigger.

"Yes. In fact," Before I could continue, Spitfire just roared in laughter. She slammed her fist on the table, trying to control herself. She then proceeded to look coldly at me.

"This entire thing is a joke, isn't it? Did Soarin' put you up to it?" Spitfire asked. I simply kept my cool.

"No. What I'm saying is serious. You may not wanna believe it, but they're living among us as we speak." I said.

"Really? Do you have proof?" She asked.

"In fact I do." I smirked. "Tachibana."

"What does the chief have to do with anything?" Spitfire crossed her arms.

"He's one of them. As was Sunny Glenway." I said.

"How do _you_ know?" She asked me.

"Because I saw them transform in front of me." I said.

"Transform?" Spitfire asked.

"Yes. They have a human guise, then they shed it when they want to cause chaos." I said. Spitfire simply reached across the table and grabbed me by the collar.

"If you think you can accuse the chief of being… whatever the hell you're talking about, you have another thing-" Just then, the door opened.

"Hey! Spitfire! This girl said she's a huge fan of us!" I heard Soarin' as the stomping sound of boots grew closer and closer.

"OMIGOSHOMIGOSHOMIGOOOOSSSSSH!" That's when I heard Rainbow Dash. She busted into the room and glanced at Spitfire. "SPITFIRE! EEEEEEEE!" Rainbow Dash squealed.

"W-what the?!" Spitfire nearly fell off of her chair.

"Is it true? Did you really scored _five_ game ending goals in a row?" Rainbow Dash said.

"Well… I…" I stopped myself from laughing at how a tough ass like Spitfire is now brought to blushing.

"What about the time you kicked a ball so hard, it broke the goal net? Huh?" Rainbow Dash was now on Spitfire's lap, having a large grin on her face the entire time.

"Y-yeah, I did… But… you _do_ realize I'm busy interrogating someone here, right?" Spitfire asked.

"Yeah, I know. But when am I ever going to see one of Canterlot High's top alumni again? You and Soarin' were a part of the greatest soccer team imaginable! I always wanted to be like you guys and so I trained every day and practiced in the field and I'm aiming to break that awesome record that Wi-" Spitfire simply groaned as she lightly pushed Rainbow Dash off of her.

"Soarin'! Why did you let her in here?" She asked. Soarin' entered the room.

"Well, you see how excited she is to see you. Plus, she told me a lot regarding the mess that went on at the Rabbit Hole last night." Soarin' said.

"Like?" Spitfire asked.

"Like how Professor Silverbolt managed to fight off several robots at once!" Rainbow Dash raised her arms up in the air.

"Yeah, that story's really becoming popular as of late. We'll probably have to look into it soon." Soarin' said.

"… This interview's over. You're free to go, Silverbolt. I'll review the footage I got." Spitfire got off of her seat and walked out of the room. I sighed in relief as Rainbow Dash walked to me.

"Thanks." I said.

"It's nothin'! You saved my butt last night, so I figured I'd return the favor." She said. I cracked a small smile.

"Again… thanks…" I said.

* * *

Spitfire walked out of the interrogation room. However, she looked around.

"… Hey, Soarin', where's Tachibana?" Spitfire asked. Soarin' walked up next to her and shrugged.

"I dunno… He disappeared last night before we got the call about the gunfight. Weird how he slipped out just as it begun, right?" Soarin' asked.

"… Yes… Weird…" Spitfire simply walked away.

* * *

 _When Ross opened his eyes, he was not at RTX. Rather, he was in the middle of town in the middle of the night._

 _"Hello?! Anyone here?" He shouted. A couple of people passed him and gave glances. Ross backed away slowly as he saw their strange skin colors. Most of them seemed to be like corpses given life. He also felt heavy. That's when he realized that he was still holding Crescent Rose in his hands. Back at the con, it weighed as much as any fake plastic sword would weigh. Here though?_

 _It weighed more like a slab of iron. Ross ran his finger through the blade again, only to retract it quickly as he felt a sharp sting on his finger tip. As he looked at the tip, he could see a small gash on his finger._

 _"Holy mother of shi-" Suddenly, glass shattered. Ross turned to see a shop with its window broken and its shopkeeper tossed out. Ross ran to see if the man was hurt, though a flash of light blinded him. He shielded his eyes as time began to slow to a crawl._

 _"_ W-what? I can't move! _"_ _Ross thought. He saw three people move out of the shop. Two of them were grayish, metallic monsters while the third wore a white business suit and a red undershirt. Despite the sluggish atmosphere, the three moved normally. The business man chuckled as he lifted the shopkeeper by the shirt._

 _"Yes… This world will be perfect for our base…" He sneered. Ross struggled to move. He had no idea how to move in this heavy pressure. He simply looked at the shopkeeper and focused on one thing: going over there and saving him._

 _All of a sudden, he began to move as rose petals began to flutter about. He ran to the first Roidmude he could see and slashed at him with the Crescent Rose. The Roidmude went flying as sparks flew out from its body. The other two Roidmudes looked to Ross as he prepared for them to attack. The other Roidmude fired bullets out of his fingers as Ross. While he took a number of bullets, his body didn't show the bullets penetrate him. It hurt, yes, but all it did was knock Ross back a bit._

 _Ross swung his scythe onto the pavement, tip crashing into the ground and sticking to it, and aimed the sniper part of the scythe. He fired at the Roidmude right in the head, blowing it off. The Roidmude fell over as its body dissolved into rose petals. Its number, 012, flew off before Ross fired at the number, shattering it. All that was left standing was the man in the white tuxedo._

 _"Aaaah…_ Here's _the resistance." He shrugged as his body was about to shift. Suddenly, sirens wailed across the city. "Well, can't get caught this early… Hope you don't see me again." With that, he ran off with the other injured Roidmude as time resumed to normal. Ross jolted a bit as the rose petals that followed him stopped. Before he could even think, police cars stopped right outside the store as officers got out of it. Some began to point guns at Ross, though one of them simply got out and looked at him:_

 _Tachibana._

* * *

Dash and I went back to the school. I decided to take her on a trip to the library. Throughout my time at Canterlot High, I took note of when the library would be most empty during the school day. CHS' schedules has three different lunch periods. The first and third lunch periods happen after second and third periods respectively, but the second lunch happens in the middle of third period, a period usually reserved for the tougher classes such as algebra or science.

As such, students who are given Lunch B tend to cram in the cafeteria rather than in the library to save on time and effort. I thought the only time I would take advantage of this moment would be to prepare a pop quiz for the second half of my class, but it seems that Lunch B has other quirks. One of them being an empty library.

I went in with Rainbow Dash and headed to a cramped space inside the library. I turned around and showed Rainbow Dash my belt.

"So, you know by now that I'm Gold Drive." I said to her. She nodded extremely fast with a big grin on her face. "Alright, so this won't be as hard as I thought." I turned the ignition.

" **Henshin…** " My body shifted into Gold Drive as the Technic Shift Car drove up to me. Banno grabbed it and placed it into the Shift Brace. The HUD lit up as I saw the Aura surrounding Rainbow Dash. It was exactly similar to Ross' Aura. I also noted that she had super speed, something that Ross had possessed. Though there seemed to be a difference.

Ross was able to keep up with us when we invoked a Slowdown, while Rainbow Dash was able to go faster than that. To compare speeds would be like comparing a Formula-1 car to a jet at Mach 1. The two speeds are very different, but similar enough to make the comparison. That's when I remembered that she was with Ross last night.

"Did that guy in the red hood do anything to you?" I asked. I simply connected the dots between Ross and Rainbow Dash.

"No… Well, he _did_ hold my hands before we got in, which I found super creepy. Then he spouted some crap about immortality and virtue and all that boring hero wannabe stuff. I felt… _something_ , but it was a pretty long night, so I thought I was just tired." Rainbow Dash said.

"Hm… That's… very odd." I muttered. "He might be the reason you had that… burst of energy."

"Really?" Rainbow Dash said.

"I'm sure of it. I want to ask more of this. How did you able to tap into that power?" I asked her.

"W-well… I saw you being attacked by that monster and I couldn't just let you die… Especially not after you saved me." Rainbow Dash said.

"… Wow… You're… pretty loyal." I said.

"Um… Thanks." I could see Rainbow Dash blush.

"Tell you what…" My armor dispersed. "You could be my sidekick. You help me with these Roidmudes, and I'll-"

"I'll do it!" Rainbow Dash smiled so hard, I could swear I heard a squeak from her cheeks.

"Wow, you just get onto it without any favors. Um… Okay?" Well, it beats bribing her with A+'s and making her the teacher's pet.

"Hey!" A familiar voice boomed across the end of the two bookshelves. "What the hay are you doing with _her_?" Applejack stomped her boot.

"Hey, me and Professor Silverbolt are having an _important_ discussion!" Rainbow Dash turned around and glared at her.

"Don't listen to whatever nonsense she says, Kel! Remember what I said to you the other day?" Applejack said. Rainbow Dash instantly turned around.

"Oh, what do _you_ know? Maybe it's _you_ who's saying nonsense!" Rainbow Dash turned her head to me. "I don't know what she said about me, but it's a complete load of-"

"Bullshit." I shot a glare at Applejack. "What you said about Rainbow Dash was bullshit. She's not treacherous and she's not a jerk. She saved my life from a Roidmude." I marched towards Applejack. "I wanna accuse you of being dishonest… but the truth is that I require both your knowledge and Rainbow Dash's strength. I'll look the other way, _this_ time. But I'll give you a warning, Applejack. Rainbow Dash will be helping me with these Roidmudes and you're going to give her as much assistance as you give me. If not? I'll simply force you to partner up with her the next time I assign the class to do team-based projects. Understand?" I asked Applejack.

"What!? You want to let _her_ help us?! Are you crazy?" Rainbow Dash shouted.

"For once, I agree, Kel!" Applejack said. I saw Cheerilee walk towards us, readying her finger to do the signature shhh that all librarians do. I simply walked out, dragging Rainbow Dash and Applejack by the arms.

* * *

 _Ross sat in the chair at the interrogation room. He intrinsically tapped his finger on the desk as he heard the fiery redhead chew his ear out over what happened at the shop. He ignored what she said, or rather, mentally replaced her words with some other words:_

 _"_ If it were up to me, you'd be sent home... With a pat on the back, and a slap on the wrist! _" He smiled as he recalled the first episode of RWBY. Come to think of it, his run in with that man in the white suit… It reminded him a lot of the first episode._

 _"Is something funny?" Spitfire slammed her hands on the table as Ross jumped back in surprise. Just then, the door opened. Ross looked as the old officer entered the room._

 _"Spitfire, leave us." He said. Spitfire stood up._

 _"… Understood, chief." She bowed and walked off. Tachibana sat in her seat._

 _"… Who are you?" Tachibana glared at Ross._

 _"My… My name is Ross Roosevelt. Look, officer, I can explain everything! Well…_ almost _everything. I can't really explain the whole move super fast stuff…" Ross said._

 _"There are a select few people who are able to move as fast as us…" Tachibana said._

 _"… Us?" Ross asked. Tachibana simply grinned as he transformed into the Judge Roidmude. Ross tried to get up, but Judge simply held his hand up._

 _"I have a proposition." Ross glared at the Roidmude. "Our forces are large, but the problem is that there's too many of us to keep track. Many of them become unruly and attack recklessly. We used to have someone that would be able to keep them in check, but certain circumstances have made him unavailable. However,_ you _could work…" Tachibana said._

 _"What do you mean?" Ross asked._

 _"That man you fought… He isn't the only person who's… unruly. There's many others. I'll inform him that you'll become our hired gun… Our… Grim Reaper. From there, I'll inform you of a list of people who have disobeyed our command." Tachibana said._

 _"Why are you telling me this? If you're with that man, shouldn't you kill me already?" Ross asked._

 _"As I said, he too is unruly. However, with him commanding our army, his views on who needs to be disciplined is… skewered. He had me handle it, but it mostly involves me covering their tracks. I want to do more than that. That's where you come in. I see that fire in your eyes… The desire for justice. If you agree to become our Grim Reaper, then I can guarantee you that you will inflict that justice onto them." Tachibana said._

 _"…No. I don't want justice." Ross looked at Tachibana and glared. "I want to be a hero."_

* * *

Eventually, we made it back to the science class, where we were suddenly greeted by exploding confetti.

"Surpriiiiiiiiise!" The pink-skinned girl shouted.

"Pinkie Pie, what the hell's going on?" I asked her.

"We're throwing a surprise 'happy monthaversery' for you!" As she said that, I checked my clock. Indeed, it _has_ been a month since I first got here. I never once asked how time progresses when compared to my world, if they're one-to-one or if it works under Hyperbolic Time Chamber logic. Nevertheless, I simply smiled. Well, it's good that people saw my importance. I began to wonder if I should bring in Bill Nye or if they'll start celebrating _him_ more than me.

"Help yourself to some cupcakes! I made them myself!" Pinkie Pie said. As I went over to check the cupcakes, I was pulled aside by one of the students.

"I wouldn't try them if I were you. I hear she makes it out of the organs of dead students." While I would take her advice, I only needed to turn my head to see her fiery red and yellow hair. I simply glare at her and waltzed over to the pyramid of what I can see is a hundred cupcakes. I took a vanilla one and ate it.

"Mmmmmmm!" Oh God, I wasn't prepared for how sugary it would be! Crap! I can feel my teeth rotting just by tasting the icing alone! Aaaaaah! Well, it helped me with _one_ thing though. If it _was_ made from meat, it wouldn't taste so… sweet!

"Students! You have got to try this!" I said. A bunch of the students came over to try the cupcakes save for five: Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Sunset Shimmer, and a yellow-skinned girl with long pink hair. I can find reason within the four. Sunset Shimmer is the generic bitchy bully and Applejack's hard as nails. Rarity's probably too proper lady like to reduce herself to eating cupcakes and Rainbow Dash's the athletic type, so I can get why she doesn't wanna eat sugary snacks.

The girl, however, was someone I didn't talk to yet. Looking at the way her hair hides away her right eye and her defensive look with her hands tugging her skirt, I can instantly tell she's Fluttershy. I walked over to her and pulled her to the side to not draw any attention. While I could see some students stare at me, I kept myself hushed up.

"So… any reason you don't wanna eat? I mean, I don't mind." I asked. She simply looked away and muttered.

"I… don't like her." She said.

"… Okay, _why_?" I asked her.

"Well… She once attended my silent auction with fireworks and noisemakers…" She said.

"Okay, obnoxious, I can get that." I said.

"And she also fed a poor dog chocolate!" Fluttershy said.

"Wait, what?" I asked.

"She sent a package of chocolates to one of the dogs in the animal shelter and he ate some… poor little Danny had to suffer a long painful night…" Fluttershy said.

"… Craaaaaap…" I turn to Pinkie Pie who was simply eating as many cupcakes as she can. I looked at Sunset Shimmer.

"You know, I can't blame you for hearing that rumor now." I said. Sunset Shimmer simply grinned. Though, it was definitely one of those evil, cocky smirks. I glared at her. _Something_ was up.

* * *

 _"_ Thus kindly, I scatter. _" Those were the words Ross heard when he got out of the police station. Time slowed down to a crawl as everything faded to black._

 _When color returned to Ross' eyes, he noticed he was back at the RTX, with the merchant standing right in front of him._

 _"How was that, m'dear?" He asked._

 _"What… happened?" Ross asked._

 _"Well, that is something we people like to call 'displacement'. You grab something from us, and ziiiiiiiiip! You're in another world! I figured I give you a little taste of the action." He said._

 _"H-how did you bring me back?" Ross asked. The man took out a silver necklace. On it was the symbol of a burning rose._

 _"This baby is a special trinket. Think of it as an anchor that lets you travel to the place where you were. We call these Tokens. Here, keep it." He handed it to Ross._

 _"Um… Thanks?" Ross said._

 _"Oh, and if you wanna go back," he pointed to the scythe. "Just hold that scythe up and say those words I said. You'll fling yourself back to that place, ready to have an adventure!"_

 _"Well, that works…" Ross said. He began to walk off, before he turned around. "Hey, what's your name?"_

 _"Niko Zoloto's the name, displacing's my game!" Niko said. Ross simply smiled and held up his scythe._

 _"Thus kindly, I scatter." With that, he displaced himself out if the convention and back into the world._

* * *

A Roidmude stood on a rooftop hummed 'London Bridge is falling down' to himself as he adjusted the camera on his chest. Next to him were six humans. One of them began to adjust the beads on his bracelet, another began to held out two fingers and made a zig-zagging pattern over his other hand. Another human, an old man with curly white hair and a lab coat, approached the edge of the roof.

"So… This is where Banno's holed up, huh? Well, it's time for the maker to meet his end." He cackled as he and the others transformed into Roidmudes. Whereas the six had standard forms, the old man turned into more of an advanced robot, with four tesla coils on his shoulders and a silver chrome forehead.

* * *

The party had a limited amount of energy to it. People were dancing to songs that were suspiciously similar to songs from the High School Musical franchise… God I feel old for remembering them.

There were enough cupcakes to go around though. I had at least a few, though I mostly stayed out of the partying. I had more pressing matters to attend to. 006 confirmed the theory that the Roidmudes remembered their pasts. Not only that, but their undoing too. It made me wonder if Heart wasn't the only Roidmude they killed. Medic was a sure bet of being their next target, given that she had a hand in killing a couple of them. The other question was how I could utilize their past memories to my advantage.

I stopped asking myself this when I noticed some of the students were looking at me. Right, I should focus on my students rather than on the battle. I looked towards Rainbow Dash and I got up.

"Rainbow Dash, I've been meaning to ask." I placed a hand on her shoulder. "What were you talking about with Soarin' and Spitfire?" I asked her. As soon as I did, Rainbow Dash grinned so hard, I could swear her cheeks _squeaked_. She immediately dragged me by the hand and ran out of the room.

* * *

Thankfully, we didn't go far, just outside the school locker room where a mural of pictures were shown. These pictures were of previous soccer teams that played for CHS. Rainbow Dash pointed to one in particular. On it, there was a team of soccer players. In the center was their coach and their two star players. These three I instantly recognized. Soarin', Spitfire, and Wind Rider as the coach.

"They were the best of the best Wondercolts! No one could stop them! They were fast, strong, and smart! They broke dead heat ties at record speeds, and when they played, they acted like a single machine! I wanted to be exactly like them when I was a kid." Rainbow Dash pointed to a small, cyan blur in the corner. See? That's me in the bleachers! Along with…" I noticed the yellow blur next to it. "Fluttershy…" She looked away, her voice deepening down and losing its momentum.

"… Something the matter?" I asked her. She shook her head.

"No… It's…" She looked at Wind Rider and she immediately perked right back up. "I'm aiming to beat his record! He has the record for the fastest time in all of Canterlot High! I'm so going to break it, just you wait!" Rainbow Dash said. She stretched her arms and started to head back. I sighed, turned my head a bit behind me, and turned around.

"So, what happened between her and Fluttershy?" I gave Applejack a few seconds for Rainbow Dash not to be in earshot of us. She stood by the wall, her foot propped against the wall like the cowboy she is… Or cow _girl_ … Wow, pronouns can get weird sometimes. The locker she stood by hid her from plain sight. I only managed to notice her by spotting her knee.

"Well, Kel, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were close. _Very_ close. We all were." She walked towards the mural of photos and pointed up to a photo of five girls: Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. "We were inseparable. Voted 'best friends' of 2010 at the Freshman Fair. Then… _She_ happened." Applejack pointed to Rainbow Dash.

"She told me she'd get the entire softball team to help out at my bake sale. They stood me up and Rainbow Dash made a liar out of me. She may have done bad things to Rarity and Pinkie, but what happened with her and Fluttershy is something I'll never forgive her for." She grasped her fist. "Like I said, they were close. Super close. Like 'more than best friends' close. Then…" Applejack sighed as she stared away.

"It was raining when she came over to my house. She cried so hard, Kelly… I'm gonna spare you the details, but needless to say, suddenly backstabbing your friend by giving her homophobic remarks on her cellphone is a sure fire way to make me angry." Applejack said.

"…" I stared at the photo of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy sitting at the bleachers.

"I don't know what you see in Rainbow Dash, but I see nothing but a jerk, an asshole, and a traitorous bitch all rolled into one. But if you want the reason why I hate her, that's why. If she can suddenly cast away someone who loved her in an instant, I can't bear to imagine how she'd help us out." With that, Applejack walked off. By that point, I straightened up my tie as the clues pieced together. It was obvious, but I knew the next person I'd talk to.

* * *

It took a moment, but I got Sunset Shimmer out into the hallway. She had her hands in her jacket pockets and rolled her eyes at me. I, on the other hand, wanted to savour the moment. Not every day that you try to bust the alpha bitch.

"So, what did you call me out for?" She asked.

"Well, Miss Shimmer, over the past month that I've been here, I've picked up on some… information. I heard stories of people who were once friends turning into bitter rivals." I said.

"Happens to everyone." She shrugged.

"Yeah, that's what I first thought, but I notice some threads. These were long term friends, and yet suddenly they're bitter with each other, or at least not as close as they once were. Makes you wonder what drove them apart." I said.

"I had friends who suddenly want nothing to do with me, so I don't see where you're going with this." She simply shrugged.

"Well, when someone's a very close friend, to the point where they could be considered lovers, suddenly giving them an insulting text for no reason is suspicious. And not on their end." I said. She glared to me.

"What are you implying? That I somehow had something to do with what happened with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy?" … There. That was it. I smiled.

"I didn't say who it was, now did I?" I said. However, before anything else was said, the lights in the school flashed before they died. This was soon followed by screams and suddenly…

 **FLASH**

Time beginning to slow to a crawl. No. No no no no no not now! Not when I have her on the ropes! Well, at least I saw her face lose all confidence in slow motion… That's a neat bonus, at least. Without any further to do, I headed off to find the source of the attack.

* * *

 **CRASH!**

 **SMASH!**

Two men in black suits were knocked down onto a red carpet in a long lavish hallway as Ross ran towards them, Crescent Rose in hand. One of them got up and transformed into a Roidmude before Ross chopped its head off. Using its falling corpse as a vault, he leaped over to the other person who transformed into another Roidmude. Crescent Rose changed into a sniper rifle as Ross fired right where the plate showed its Core: **103.** The bullet entered its chest and shot right through the Core. Both Roidmude bodies slowly disintegrated into rose petals as Ross landed. While 103's Core was irreparably destroyed, Ross turned around and destroyed the other floating number: **037** , using only the hard side of the weapon. He turned his head towards the closed door.

He ran and leaped into the air, wrapping himself in the hood as he zoomed right to the door and smashed it in. As he landed, he looked to see a revolving chair turned away from him.

"Really? This generic crap?" Ross reloaded Crescent Rose as the chair slowly turned around. 006 simply shrugged.

"Eh, you just gotta love the classics." He smirked and got off of his chair.

"You seem to be pretty cool with me raiding your place." Ross said.

"Well, it's hard not to be angry when you know you have the edge." 006 walked slowly to Ross. Ross simply muffled a laugh.

"You don't know anything, Roidmude. That Rider you had me attack… She will stop the Roidmudes, and I will stop you… Bet on tha-"

 **JAB!**

006 jabbed his thumb right below the side of Ross' jaw. Ross' face tensed up a bit before he broke out in a fit of laughter. Ross grabbed his neck as he fell down onto the floor. As he fell, 006 shifted into his Roidmude form, first his base Cobra form, then he transformed into his Advanced Form, Nerve.

"The human body has so many pressure points… Did you know that? Every point has a different function when they break…" Nerve crouched down as he jabbed his thumb right on Ross' shoulder. He screamed as the muscles in his arm seized up and his nails dug right into his palm. "As fun as it was to make my enemies pin cushions, I knew just from the first time testing this power out that it'd ruin the fun. So I held myself back until I felt like it was necessary to attack a human's nerves. But now?" A golden aura enveloped him.

"Now I can have lots of fun with this power… And you get to help me!" Soon, his entire body flashed gold. As the light faded, the color of his body changed. Now his body was a chromatic gold as the brass tubes were now blue. His sunglasses were blood red now. He closed in on Ross as he struck his body in the chest, then right in the middle of his arm, and soon his knee, and after that, his arm became a blur as he attacked several parts of Ross' body, all the while cackling.

* * *

I ran through the school as I heard bullets crash against glass and students screaming. I looked around to see where the Roidmudes were attacking, only to notice a part of the building began to implode. I was knocked away as a Roidmude whose chest had a large camera lens approached me: Scooper, a Roidmude able to take photos of buildings and then destroy their structure. I struggled to get up as three lower-class Roidmudes stood behind him.

"Do you see the power that we Roidmudes possess?" Scooper held his arms out. He nodded to a Spider Class Roidmude, 079, as hopped onto a shard of glass and was sucked into it. While I never watched the show, I got the idea that he was pulling a trick from an old Kamen Rider show, and so I looked around. However, I forgot to take in that the Roidmude could use any reflective surface as a portal. He leaped out of the surface of the Banno Driver and socked me in the jaw. I flew back and hit a wall as the Roidmude landed.

"This is the end for you… Goodbye, Professor." The Scooper Roidmude held up a photograph and poked on it. I looked above as I saw the ceiling collapse on top of me. Immediately, I turned the ignition and transformed. Banno knocked the debris away and rushed to the Scooper Roidmude, only for another Roidmude, 052, to run up to him, grabbed him by the throat, and threw him down. He backed away as Roidmude 053 picked me up and flew through the hole made in the ceiling.

As it held me in the air, I could see another Roidmude in front of the school, the Volt Roidmude. He fired bolt after bolt of electricity at different parts of the school as many students ran off. Banno struggled as I saw Volt taking time to zap some of the students with what I can safely presume to be a lethal shock. Volt looked up and saw me as 053 dropped me down, right into his path.

Volt raised his large claw-like appendages as it created a bluish-yellow electrical sphere. He pushed it up and a large beam headed straight for me, piercing me right through abdomen. Thankfully, Banno was in control of my body, otherwise I would have felt what the original Kamen Rider Drive went through when facing Freeze.

That said, I did feel nervous as the beam struck me. The HUD began to glitch out as I heard a loud buzzing noise.

"Banno?! Banno!?" I shouted his name out, but he didn't respond. I fell, and it seemed to be a pretty large fall too. About a hundred, maybe a hundred and twenty feet? As I landed, I created a Gold Drive-shaped crater as the transformation cancelled out. I looked down to see the belt, but all I noticed was pieces of Banno's face replaced with black squares.

I managed to get up okay, albeit with a slight knee jerk. Seemed the armor took much of the blow and Banno's control dulled my sense of pain. I could only stand as the army of Roidmudes approach me.

* * *

Tachibana laid down on the couch at the Bree-Zee Animal Shelter. He dismissed the oncoming phone call from Soarin'. The police didn't need to know where he was. If anything, he could say that he got in a crackdown gone horribly wrong and had to lay low for a few days.

The Roidmudes don't know where he was too. Otherwise they would have sent the Reaper Legion or even their backup Grim Reaper on him. Tachibana wasn't exactly sure how long he should lay low for. A week, at least.

He _did_ plan on switching human disguises, though. Either change completely or create a composite form like how Iron did it.

Though, outside forces usually interfere with his plans, as was what would happen with the TV.

"Reports have cited a group of unidentified lifeforms attacking Canterlot High." The news reporter immediately spoke as soon as the words "BREAKING NEWS" appeared. Footage of the Roidmudes' attack on CHS played out as Tachibana got out of his seat. "They have begun mercilessly attacking the students. Paramedics are on the scene, but are unable to attend to the students due to the ongoing battle going on." Tachibana growled once he saw Gold Drive on the TV.

"Among these lifeforms is the rumored 'Golden Drive', a masked vigilante making headlines since a month ago. Nobody can conclude if these lifeforms are tied to Golden Drive or not, but this exclusive footage we recorded suggests they have some sort of antagonism." Tachibana didn't even bother to see the footage of the Volt Roidmude landing the finishing blow on Gold Drive. He hobbled out of the building. He just hoped to get there in time.

"Tachibana! I made you some chicken noodle sou-" Mrs. Breesby walked into the room. She dropped the bowl of soup as she noticed two things: the lack of a Tachibana, and most important of all, the sight of her daughter's school being under attack.

* * *

I ran and screamed. I threw a punch towards one of the Roidmudes, only for them to block the attack and strike me across the face. I rolled onto the ground, got up, and did a tornado kick on him. He punched me so hard in the gut that I was knocked across the field and fell down.

"As soon as this obstacle is destroyed, we Roidmudes will rule over all of humanity!" Volt laughed. He began to charge up one final energy bolt.

This was it. I can see my fate being sealed before my eyes. I struggled to get up. I struggled to fight at least one last time. But no. I couldn't even stand. The Roidmudes stopped attacking, if only to see the execution of their abusive creator and me, his puppet. After that, they'll just go back to destroying…

To killing… I looked around to see the students hurt by the Roidmudes' attacks. I looked to see the destroyed portion of CHS. And perhaps what got me to do the next thing… I saw Pinkie Pie trying to rescue some of the younger students at the school who were severely shocked by the Volt Roidmude.

This was never about me. This was never about Banno. Banno was correct. As it stands, I'm the only one who can fight. The police are either incompetent or corrupt, Ross stands no chance against them, and no one has ever heard of these Roidmudes until today. I imagined what would happen if I fell. Images of Roidmudes firing and destroying everything, killing any who stand in their way as drops of rain stayed frozen in mid-air.

Global Freeze.

If I fell, the Roidmudes will rule this world. Everyone I have met in this past month will either die or be enslaved to them.

I thought back to the portrait with Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and the others. All together and happy, only to be torn apart by what I would assume to be the generic bully. If I fall, they will never be friends again.

"No…" I muttered. "I… I won't let you do this…" I gripped my fist. "I won't let you harm my students. I won't let you harm my home." I stood up. "I won't let you harm my friends." I glared at the Volt Roidmude. "And most certain of all…" I pointed to him. "I won't let you harm this world!"

"You think you can stop us?" Volt asked.

"Yeah. Because I'm Kamen Rider Gold Drive, and I'm gonna take you all for a ride! Banno… I don't know if you can hear me, but please… **_START MY ENGINE!_** " I shouted out as I turned the ignition. Volt fired a jolt at me. I didn't get a response from Banno so I turned it again. As the bolt hit me, I screamed. My body changed into the blur of red and gold pixels. The gold armor latched onto me and my visor went white the instant they formed. The golden armor had a few sparks of lightning dancing on it. I stared at the Roidmudes as I took out the Steering Sword.

Roidmude 056 sprayed out a web out of his mouth towards me, though I grabbed it and pulled the Roidmude towards me. I impaled the Roidmude once he was near, pulled out my sword, spun around, and then slashed his back. He easily exploded, his core exploding in the process. I turned to the Volt Roidmude as I turned the ignition.

" **H-Hah… That took a lot out of me…** " Banno said as I handed the controls over to him. Banno was given the Door Gun and the Burning Solar Shift Car. As he saw the Volt Roidmude charge up another blast, Banno loaded the Shift Car into the Door Gun and fired a blast of light towards him. The Roidmude clawed out is eyes and screamed. " **That should keep you busy.** " That's when he was knocked around by another Roidmude. " **Gah!** "

I was able to catch the number of this Roidmude: 058. Seems these Roidmudes have gotten some upgrades. Not enough to fully merit a transformation to an Advanced Form, but something that can be well on their way to one.

Better make sure to stop them now, in that case.

"Switch!" I said to Banno as he turned the ignition. As soon as I gained control, I stabbed the Steering Sword into the ground and gained the Zenrin Shooter. I spread my shots with both the Zenrin Shooter and the Door Gun to try and catch 058 off guard. However, he leaped up and tried to strike me. Fortunately, I rolled over and struck him with the front wheel of the Zenrin Shooter. As he flew over from the knock back, I pressed the red button on my Shift Brace.

" **THE FINISHER! FULL THROTTLE!** " Banno shouted as I fired wildly at the airborne Roidmude, destroying his body and core in the process. I dropped the guns as I turned the ignition again. Banno groaned as he held the Signal Axe. " **Give me a better weapon!** " Banno said as he struck the ground with the Signal Ax, planting it in the ground. He ran over and grabbed the Steering Sword.

However, two glass fangs pierced the back of Banno's neck. It only took a second to smash them. He turned around and saw Roidmude 063. I noticed the Roidmude's collar was multicolored, almost like…

Stained Glass…

Wasn't there a Kamen Rider that fought stained glass monsters? Banno turned the Ignition as I regained control and gained two Shift Cars: Road Winter and Colorful Commercial. Gee, which one to use? I plugged in Road Winter into the Steering Sword and ran to 063. I made sure to drop Colorful Commercial into the slot for the Signal Ax.

" **THE FINISHER!** " The axe began to blare out. " **WAIT FOR IT!** " It chanted as I stabbed frantically into the Roidmude. With each stab, the Roidmude slowly froze. As I stabbed him in the plate that displayed his Core, he began to crystalize and became a nice shiny ice sculpture.

Once that was done, I left the sword planted into the Roidmude as I back flipped. I landed on the shaft of the Signal Ax, causing it to spring out of the ground and flip into the air. I leaped up soon after.

" **GO FOR IT!** " I grabbed onto the axe when I was about ten feet in the air and struck down. " **FULL THROTTLE!** "I fell onto the Roidmude just as 079 was about to come out of the ice's reflective surface, only to realize his ambush was gonna get ambushed.

" ** _BUY ALL OUR PLAYSETS AND TOOOOOYS!_** " I regretted putting Colorful Commercial in there as I saw my axe leave a holographic banner saying 'Buy all our playsets and toys!'. Despite that, though, it managed to do the trick of destroying two Roidmudes with one strike.

"Dynamic Chop…" I muttered under my breath. The blaring of sirens entered my ears as I turned around. Police cars began to appear as the Volt Roidmude just scoffed.

"Let's not let them interfere in our affair." Volt said as he fired off a bolt with his claws. I held up my hand as a barrier of golden energy materialized in front of the police cars, blocking the thunderbolt. As I did that, I heard the beeping that indicated that I must switch to Banno before the transformation cancels out.

If that were to happen, then the golden energy would also cancel out. I had no choice. I swapped out for Banno. Dozens of officers came out, guns pointed towards me and the Roidmudes. I saw Soarin' and Spitfire both pointing their guns at me. Banno didn't seem to care and just looked at the remaining three Roidmudes: Volt, Scooper, 052 and 053.

That is until one of the officers spoke up.

"H-hey! It's Tachibana!" Banno turned his head to the crowd of cops as Tachibana hobbled over to them.

"What happened?" "Are you hurt?" The cops began to ask him, but Tachibana waved them away.

"Don't worry about me… Worry about _them_." Tachibana shot a glare at me.

"Yeah! Who do we shoot, chief?" Soarin' asked.

"…" Tachibana's eyes shifted to me, then to the Roidmudes. "Both." He said. The cops began to cock their guns, save for Spitfire.

"You sure? We just saw Golden Drive take out a couple of them." Spitfire said.

"Positive. We don't know the full story of this vigilante. Perhaps he's just killing these Roidmudes to climb up their ladder of control." Tachibana said. Banno couldn't help but chuckle.

" **You have a point. As soon as I am able to, I will rule over all the Roidmudes! And all of humanity too!** " Banno then cackled.

"Banno! Shut up!" I said. Tachibana smirked.

"See? Now… Open fire!" Tachibana said. The police opened fire, though Banno simply moved the shield from Volt over to him, blocking the bullets from striking while the other bullets hit the Roidmudes. Huh… Banno actually anticipated it?

"… Okay, that was clever." I said. Banno walked over to pick up the two discarded blasters.

" ** _What_** **was?** " Banno asked.

"… Never mind." I said as Banno began to fire at the Roidmudes as well. Both Scooper and Volt held their Low-Class members like meat shields, blocking them from both the gunfire of the cops and Banno's own gunfire. Not that they would affect the Roidmudes, it seemed.

"Judge! You traitor!" Volt shouted.

"Judge? Who's that?" Soarin' stopped firing to ask that question.

"…" Tachibana didn't answer.

" **That's the codename these Roidmudes have given your so-called Chief of Police.** " Banno said, not even glancing to the cops.

"That's a lie!" Tachibana shouted.

"Really?" Scooper asked before he tossed 053 at the cops. He flew towards Tachibana, claws readied. The cops began to fire. I wanted to go in and help, but Banno was currently engaging with the other Roidmudes. He flew towards Tachibana, claws readied. The cops began to fire. I wanted to go in and help, but Banno was currently engaging with the other Roidmudes. He dropped the guns and turned the ignition.

As much as wanted to go, the moment I noticed a large, blue, trailer-themed Shift Car roll towards me on a road that was being paved in mid-air as it came closer and closer, I knew Banno wanted more firepower. I grabbed onto the large cannon, pushed the front part down to form the handle, and pointed to 052. I fired and it shot a large blast at the Roidmude. Knocking both him and Volt back before 052 exploded. I fired another blast at the core and blew it up.

I looked as some of the police tried to hold back 053, only to bunched and even shot by the Roidmude. One of them was Spitfire as she was shot in the leg. Tachibana, after seeing at least five of his men go down, yelled out and transformed into the Judge Roidmude. The entire police force gasped and pointed their guns to him. Tachibana simply looked at the group for a moment before he stabbed his kendo stick into the ground, creating a massive smoke screen.

I heard a lot of clashes and metal scraping metal before I heard an explosion. My heart stopped for only a moment before I saw the number 052 hover over a little bit into the air before blowing up. The Judge Roidmude jumped out of the thick cloud and screamed as he tried to strike me with his weapon. I sidestepped and fired point blank at his chest. Judge was knocked back by the blast, though he stabbed his kendo stick to the ground to stop himself from going too far.

He shot his Taser darts towards me, though I rolled out of the way. I fired a few shots at Judge, though he managed to stop them with more darts. I continued to shoot as I ran towards Judge. When I was close to him, I just swung the Trailer Cannon like the large slab of metal that it was and struck him in the head five times, each in a different direction. The sixth and final strike was using the butt of the gun to knock him straight on the head. That knocked him down enough to execute the finishing blow.

I turned the ignition as three Shift Cars drove to me: Shift Formula, Shift Speed, and Shift Wild. Banno took the three and slotted Formula onto the top part of the cannon.

" **FORMULA CANNON!** " He loaded the two Shift Cars next. " **THE FINISHER! FULL THROTTLE!** " He pointed the cannon at Judge as blue, purple, and gold colored energies built up in the barrel of the cannon. Just before he pulled the trigger, however…

"W-wait!" I heard that voice before… It was Fluttershy! I saw Fluttershy, relatively safe albeit with a bit of a torn skirt, as she ran over to Judge and held her arms out as to shield him. "D-don't hurt him!" Fluttershy said.

Any other day of the week, I wouldn't have listened to her and simply told her to move. However, I knew there might be more to this than meets the eye. Why is Fluttershy defending a Roidmude of all things? Especially Judge? I decided to hold my fire… Though I soon realized that I wasn't in control.

Banno was.

" **GWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You idiot!** " My body went cold as Banno kept the cannon pointed towards Judge despite Fluttershy blocking the shot. " **It's your funeral!** " Banno fired.

"STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!" I shouted.

" **FULLY LOADED FORMULA CANNON!** " And with that, I couldn't help but watch as the large blue and white beam went streaking towards Fluttershy.


	6. What Can Stop Nerve?

Time slowed to a crawl, not by Slowdown, but by my own fear as I saw Fluttershy in the way of an oncoming blast fired from the Trailer Cannon, with Banno's own laughter to serve as the soundtrack. I closed my eyes and whispered out:

"I'm sorry."

 **WHOOOSH!**

I opened my eyes as I saw a rainbow line snatch Fluttershy and Judge away, the beam now heading towards the Volt Roidmude who struck the ground with his claws, creating an electrical barrier to block the blast. The blast exploded and as the smoke cleared, both Volt and Scooper were gone.

"What's wrong with you!?" I heard Rainbow Dash's voice as Banno looked to her. I saw Fluttershy shaking for a little bit before she too looked at Rainbow Dash.

"R-rainbow Dash?" She blushed. Rainbow Dash simply glanced at Fluttershy before returning her glare to me.

"You nearly killed her! What kind of hero are you!?" Rainbow Dash yelled at me. Banno looked around and saw that the Roidmudes were gone. He just stood there as the Gold Drive armor took off, leaving me to look at Rainbow Dash as she held Fluttershy almost defensively. I glared.

"I wasn't trying to kill her! I was trying to kill-" I pointed to Judge, but he too was gone. "GODDAMN IT!" I shouted. Soarin' then approached me.

"It's okay. We saw what happened." Soarin' sighed and talked with Rainbow Dash. "Professor Silverbolt was fighting that monster then that girl over there got in the way." Soarin' said.

"M-monster?" Fluttershy pushed Dash away from herself. "He was _not_ a monster! He's my friend!" Fluttershy said.

"What!?" It was weird. I said it around the same time as Soarin' and Rainbow Dash… It was so surreal.

"Just because he looks different doesn't mean he should be put in the same category as those other monsters!" I could see tears try to form in her eyes. Before I could even say anything, Fluttershy ran off. I looked to Rainbow Dash, but she stormed off in a huff.

* * *

The sounds of ambulance sirens rang out the following evening as I stayed in the library sipping some coffee. I couldn't help but glare at my reflection, or rather, the Banno in the reflection.

"… You know Fluttershy wouldn't have survived that blast, right?" I asked Banno.

" **Oh yes. I was aware. But the blast would have taken out Judge as well. If not that, then heavily damage him while we worked on the other Roidmudes.** " Banno said.

"Okay, Banno, I get you're a crazy madman-"

" **I prefer the term** ** _genius_** **.** "

"Whatever! You can't just do that!" I said.

" ** _You_** **are scolding** ** _me_** **?** " Banno laughed. " **I believe you forgot the pecking order. You're merely my puppet. I just haven't found the strings yet.** " Banno said. As much as I hate to say it, he has a point. Even if I have more say in transforming, the fact of the matter is that he retains as much control of being Gold Drive as I do.

"… Speaking of, Fluttershy said that Judge was a 'friend'." I said.

" **I'm aware. It's not uncommon to see Roidmudes befriend humans. I originally intended them to help them, after all.** " As Banno said that, all my thought processes went to a screeching halt.

"What?" I asked.

" **Do you think of me as some madman out for world domination? Well, I wasn't like that before. I created the Roidmudes with the intent of befriending humanity. Creating an unbreakable bond between man and machine. However, when I presented my ideas to investors, they all turned me down. They said that they couldn't feasibly see a world where robots are friends with humans. Those fools…** " I remembered how Banno made one of the Roidmudes copy the likeness of one of said investors, if only to use him as a punching bag. " **Once the only person who ever understood my plan left me, I abandoned all resolve to create a utopia where man and machine were one. Instead, I began to imagine a world where machines ruled the world. Humanity is flawed and it's clear that out of the two, the Roidmudes are the superior ones.** " Banno said.

"… You know I don't believe this whole 'I tried to do good' crap, right?" I flat out said.

" **Do you need to ask for proof? Because I believe you already have that. 072, 009, even that failure of a prototype have enough proof.** " And sure enough, he was right.

072 befriended a member of the police over a show they watched together and had worked with them in secret.

009, better known as Medic, healed her human template along with dozens of other Roidmudes, giving her a somewhat angel-like grace.

As for Banno's prototype, 000… He was better known as Kamen Rider Chaser. Before that, he was Mashin Chaser, the original Grim Reaper in the show.

" **Even now, it seems that there are Roidmudes who wish to protect humanity.** " Banno said. I shook my head. I wanted to tell him that Judge was not a protector, but that's when I heard static on a nearby radio. I went over to turn up the volume.

" _Greetings, humans…_ " I recognized the voice. It was Volt. " _You may have bared witness to our might on our siege of Canterlot High School and wonder who we are. Well, allow me to confirm your fears. We are Roidmudes. We are the superior beings that will lord over you pathetic humans. As of today, we are preparing to siphon all the power of Canterlot City into a single machine. And by using this machine, we will be able to summon forth our Roidmude brethren to revolutionize this feeble world! Today will be the last day of human freedom! Fear us! For we are the Roidmudes!_ " Volt ended his speech with a cackle and soon, radio static.

"… Damn it!" I slammed my fist into the table.

" **Hmm… Mighty ambitious of them.** " Banno said.

"We're not going to sit here and let them win." I walked over and looked over the Shift Cars that had sat on the table. As far as I know, the students who entered the library just look at them as toy cars. A collection of Transformers toys. It helped that the Shift Cars were stationary in the day time. As I approached them, the cars all turned to me. I looked to them. This would be my first time commanding the Shift Cars without using Gold Conversion. I took a deep breath and spoke up.

"You heard him. If we don't stop them, we might end up facing another Global Freeze. I know that the creator of these robots rests on my very waist, but we all have the same goal right now: stopping the Roidmudes. I need you to find any large building that could act as a conduit for an electrical system." I said. I recalled Volt's endgame plan involving using an electrical device on top of a mall. To my surprise, the cars all honked in unison and drove off, creating tiny roads for them to drive on as they did.

"Hey, Banno, does Gold Conversion brainwash the Shift Cars?" I asked him.

" **… I never tested out that possibility.** " Banno said. I could only look as the Shift Cars all drove out of the library in different directions. Some went out the window, others went through the empty halls.

* * *

"I'm so glad you're alright!" Fluttershy's mom held Fluttershy in the living room. "When I saw your school was attacked by those… monsters, I felt so afraid… It was a kind of fear I never felt before." She said.

"Mom, don't worry. Everything was fine. Mr. Tachibana was there to save me." She said.

"Tachibana? Wasn't he one of the monsters that-"

"No! He isn't like them! I tried telling the others that, but they didn't believe me! You met Mr. Tachibana before, so you know he's nice!" Fluttershy said.

"I know, but…" Fluttershy's mom said before there was a loud knock at the door. Fluttershy's mom walked over to get the door. As she opened, she saw a man in a white tuxedo with a matching fedora and a soft-shaven beard.

"Hello." He cocked a smile as two low-class Roidmudes stood behind him. Fluttershy's mom tried to shut the door, but before she could even shriek, 006 struck her in the chest, causing her to convulse and go down on the floor.

"Mom!" Fluttershy rushed over to her, though 006 flicked his wrist, slowing down the flow of time in a flash of light. Nerve walked over to Fluttershy, grabbed her by the throat, and slammed her into a wall, fingernails digging into her skin.

"Where is Tachibana?" He asked.

"Hrrkkk…" Fluttershy grunted. Nerve released some pressure. "I… don't… know… arrrg…"

"He would have known we'd be coming for him." One of the low-class Roidmudes said. Nerve simply nodded.

"You're right." He then proceeded to jab Fluttershy in the side of the neck. He turned around as Fluttershy slowly fell to the floor, her body going limp. "She'll do as bait." Nerve picked her up. "Besides, we need someone to act as a conduit for the device."

"Won't this piss off that Kamen Rider?" The other Roidmude asked.

"Heh… Leave that to me." Nerve said. With that, the trio ran off with Fluttershy. Time resumed to normal as Mad Doctor, the ambulance Shift Car, drove over and saw Mrs. Breesby. The Shift Car blared its sirens and went to work.

* * *

I sat in the library. The school was closed due to the attack. I was able to check the news of the aftermath. Despite what I have seen, there were fewer deaths than I had imagined. Only half a dozen died in the attacks, though all of them had names that I didn't recognize. I wondered if Krim had to do this when dealing with the aftermath of Global Freeze. Seeing how many people he failed to save or even how many lives he indirectly destroyed by giving Banno the technology needed to create the Roidmudes' ability to slow time down.

Several Shift Cars came back, each reporting a different location where the supposed device that Volt boasted about would be. They did this by driving to a certain part of a fold out map the library had in the archives and I marked each of them down with a thumbtack on the old corkboard.

"Damn it. There's a dozen places that Volt could be at!" I said. That's when I remembered…

The mall!

Volt, in his previous life, set up his device at a large mall. All I had to do was find a mall…

Bingo! I found the mall almost instantly. The Canterlot Shopping Centre. As I was about to leave, I saw Applejack bust into the library.

"Applejack?" I asked.

"It's Fluttershy!" Applejack said. I saw Mad Doctor roll into the library as well.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Fluttershy's been kidnapped by those Roastporks!" Applejack said.

"What!?" I said. It took me a while to think about what the Roidmudes wanted with Fluttershy. When I found out the answer, I gave Applejack a stern look. "Wait here." I said. I ran off, open the window, jumped out, and took out my LockVehicle, the SunDriver. I popped the lock open, tossed it, and it transformed into an ATV for me to ride on. I drove off.

* * *

"Fluttershy's what?" Applejack turned around to see Rainbow Dash.

"… What are _you_ doing here?" Applejack asked.

"I don't know if you noticed, but Professor Silverbolt said that we were on the same team. As soon as I saw you and that car, I knew something was up." Rainbow Dash said.

"… Well, there's nothing we can do." Applejack muttered.

"What are you talking about?!" Rainbow Dash said.

"You heard me! Those monsters destroyed part of our school and even hurt some of our friends! We're powerless to stop them! I've seen their power with my own eyes. The best we can do is wait for Kelly to stop them for us." Applejack said.

"… No. I'm not going to stand for it. I'm going with her!" Rainbow Dash said.

"You're not going to survive. I encountered those… Those Roidmudes, and I was lucky to even be alive." Applejack said.

"I was in that same situation too. But I pulled through…" Rainbow Dash looked away. "If you like, you can come with me." She said.

"Why should I go with you?" Applejack glared at Rainbow Dash.

"Because I can show you how to fight the Roidmudes." She walked over to Applejack. "Close your eyes. I'm going to touch your face for a bit." She said.

"What!? No!" Applejack said.

"Do you wanna save Fluttershy or not!?" Rainbow Dash shouted. A brief pause followed. Applejack soon shut her eyes. Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and tried to think back to what Ross said to her. When she finally got the words, she spoke up while gracefully stroking Applejack's face:

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee." Rainbow Dash put another hand on Applejack's shoulder. Her body glowed cyan while Applejack's glowed orange. The glows faded as Rainbow Dash's legs began to wobble.

"Woah! What happened?!" Applejack asked. Rainbow Dash straightened up.

"I think I just gave you superpowers." Rainbow Dash said. She picked up Applejack. "Trust me on this." She said before running off at supersonic speeds.

* * *

I drove down a private street down by Canterlot City. Despite the ride being an all-terrain vehicle, the city barely had any terrain for the SunDriver to tear through other than roads. I figured to draw less attention to myself by sticking to the less-used roads. At first, it may seem like I shot myself in the foot by going a long way around as opposed to taking the highway like every other person, but the speed of the SunDriver, followed closely by plugging Shift Speed into one of the slots on my dash, was more than enough to make up for that.

 **BANG!**

Or so I thought. Before I knew it, one of the tires blew out, causing the SunDriver to tumble out of control. Shift Speed and I managed to get out of it before the ATV began to flip over, right into a wall where it blew up, parts of it scattering on the side of the road. I turned around to see who shot the tire.

And then I saw him. Standing on the roof before he leaped down.

"Ross?" I asked him. He looked… different. The muscles in his left arm spasmed uncontrollably, though he seemed to hold the scythe pretty steadily with his right. He had a smile that just stretched from ear to ear, teeth gritted as the eyelids twitched. I could almost see veins bulge from his neck. He walked closer to me, only stifled laughs came out of him.

" **… Nerve…** " Banno muttered. I backed away from Ross. Banno and I both remembered the Nerve Roidmude's power of attacking the nervous system. Super Evolution simply enhances what a Roidmude has, along with giving them more abilities. It wasn't any stretch of the imagination that 006 had something to do with Ross.

"Snap out of it, Ross!" I shouted to him.

" **It's no use! A Super Evolved Roidmude's effects on the human body are irreversible! The only way we could save Ross is if we digitize him and edit out the effects!** " Banno said. I remembered how he saved the life of a person using that exact method when a Super Evolved Roidmude poisoned her.

Unfortunately, he was able to do that only when he was in a tablet. Seeing as he was confined to a belt, that left one other option.

"Or we kill Nerve." I said. I tried to run, but Ross fired at me. I rolled out of the way and looked at him. "But first…" I turned the ignition. "Go easy on him, okay?" I asked.

" **I don't make promises I don't intend to keep.** " Banno said.

"But those are the best kinds!" I chuckled slightly. Banno sighed.

" ** _Henshin._** " Banno said as I stood up. I transformed into Gold Drive as Banno took over. Ross ran at Banno with blinding speed. Banno was only able to match it with a flash of golden light, clutching the topside of the scythe with his hand.

" **Hey, boy! Best calm down before you tick me off.** " Banno said before Ross fired at him, knocking him right into the pile of broken LockVehicle parts. " **… You asked for it.** " Banno turned the ignition as I received a purple monster truck Shift Car with green tires.

I put the car into the Shift Brace as Ross spun around, swinging his scythe as well. I clutched the scythe as two golden colored jaws materialized and clamped down onto Ross' hands. Despite the jaws digging into Ross' arms, I could feel Ross still pushing forward with his weapon. I backed away as the jaws began to disappear.

"We need to hold him off. I have an idea." I said as I turned the ignition. The red circuit on my chest flared as Banno switched in. Two Shift Cars drove in, one a tow truck and the other a large, punkish truck called a dekotora. The two expelled a wench and chains respectively as they held down Ross. However, what Banno got in his hands was the Trailer Cannon and Shift Speed. Shift Speed already plugged itself into the top of the cannon.

" **SPEED CANNON!** "

" **You want me to kill him?** " Banno asked as he aimed the gun.

"No. We just need to cripple him temporarily. He can take the damage." I said. Banno looked into the empty compartment where the Shift Cars could be loaded and chuckled.

" **I like your moxie.** " Banno said before he turned the ignition. A red Shift Car drove right into my hands. A person could be forgiven for mistaking the Shift Car to be a limousine for how long it was. In truth, it's actually a Shift Car modeled after the main rider's own ride of choice: a custom car called the Tridoron. I pressed a large red button on the side.

" **FIRE ALL ENGINES!** " And I slid the large Shift Car right into the loading compartment.

" **THE FINISHER! FULL THROTTLE! FULL SPEED BIG CANNON!** " I pulled the trigger as a large, red blast fired from the cannon. As Ross broke away from his confinements, the blast hit him with the force of an oncoming car. It knocked Ross so far away that he was about ten feet up when he hit a wall and fell down right onto the pavement with a sickening thud. For good measure, I turned the ignition to get Shift Technic as Banno loaded it into the Shift Brace.

" **Amazing.** " Banno muttered.

"I know." I saw Ross' vitals were unaffected by the attack, though the Aura around him had greatly diminished compared to when I last fought him.

" **No, not that…** ** _That_** **.** " Banno turned around and pointed to what he saw. Soon, I saw it with my own eyes. It was a large, red custom sports car. While part of the hood was missing, exposing the front tire, I squeed hard as I saw its twin white stripes sweeping down the car.

I had just summoned Kamen Rider Drive's ride: the Tridoron.

* * *

The trail of a bright rainbow streaked over towards the Canterlot Shopping Center before it stopped, showing the two girls standing outside in the middle of the street.

"Where the hell's Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash took the time to pant. "We searched all town for her!" That's when the two heard a choir of screaming.

"Well, there's someplace we haven't looked." Applejack pointed to where the sound came from: a crowd of people running from two low-class Roidmudes as they fired bullets from their fingertips. Applejack and Rainbow Dash got ready to rush in, only for a sinkhole to form right beneath their feet.

"Look out!" Applejack grabbed Rainbow Dash before her legs kicked up, knocking them a few feet into the air before landing a few spaces behind the newly made crater.

"Woah! Applejack! That was amazing! How did you do that?!" Rainbow Dash asked.

"I dunno! I just acted on instinct and suddenly I'm a jumpin' bug!" She said. The two heard footsteps behind them and they turned, seeing the Scooper Roidemude in front of them as he adjusted his lens and held a photo in his other hand. Applejack backed away as Rainbow Dash took a fighting pose.

"I don't know about you, but I ain't running away!" Rainbow Dash ran towards the Scooper Roidemude. Just as she was about to throw a fist, she created a large sonic boom. Its ripples were colored just like the rainbow as she was able to run at Mach 1, punching the Scooper Roidmude almost a thousand times before throwing him towards Applejack with the same velocity.

Applejack tried to get away, but as soon as her foot dangled over the hole, she stopped. Seeing her opponent fly towards her, Applejack simply side kicked him. Her legs glowed in an orange color as the kick landed square into the lens, shattering them and knocking the Roidmude back. Rainbow Dash ran back towards Applejack before stopping. The two looked to the Roidmude as he struggled to get up.

"Trust me on this." Rainbow Dash muttered. She ran towards the Roidmude, grabbing Applejack as she did so. As she ran, she threw Applejack into the air. In a moment's notice, Applejack realized what she needed to do and preformed a flying side kick towards the Roidmude. The kick, while not enough to destroy the Roidmude, knocked him flying towards one of the nearby buildings and knocking him out. As Applejack landed, she and Rainbow Dash looked to the two Roidmudes guarding the front of the mall. Applejack took Rainbow Dash's arm.

"…" She simply gave her a glare.

"What are you looking at?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"This doesn't make us friends, y'know." Applejack said before she jumped up, towards one of the upper floors of the mall.

As the Scooper Roidmude got up, he tried to get the picture of the mall he took prior and destroy the part they jumped to.

 **Snaaaaaaarl** …

However, he heard a strange sound coming from the alleyway where he was from. He turned around to see inky blackness. The snarling seemed to get louder. Before he knew it, he saw two red dots that could easily pass for eyes. While he readied himself, he wasn't prepared for what happened next.

 **ROOOOAAR!**

A loud scream echoed through the city, though it fell on the deaf ears of his Roidmude brethren standing watch at the mall.

* * *

The Tridoron roared through the streets as I drove it from point A to point B. Thankfully, the Tridoron came equipped with a GPS. While it spoke in Japanese, for some reason, I was able to understand it as if it was my mother tongue. I never paid much heed to it before. It made me wonder though how Banno was able to speak fluently in English. Then again, given the fact that he was a scientist, I could easily just assume that Banno simply learned English at some point. Made sense considering how much English Krim peppered into his speeches…

Heh, pepper, like Chris Peppler, his actor…

I suddenly heard the sirens of a police car and I pulled over on the side of the street. The police car pulled over as well. I unfurled my window, only to find that the cop who pulled me over was…

"Judge…" I muttered.

"Please, a moment of your time." He asked.

"Why? You pretty much shot down all chances of talking nice to me when you had your men fire at me." I said. Tachibana simply looked at me.

"If I had the police shoot only _you_ , they'd be suspicious. If I had them shoot only the Roidmudes, then that'd confirm their suspicions of my betrayal. Though considering what had happened before, they didn't need that much evidence." Tachibana said.

"... Yeah, I've been meaning to ask that. You're a traitor to your kind?" I asked.

"No. I'm not. I have not betrayed the Roidmudes." Judge said.

" **You murdering that one Roidmude said otherwise.** " Banno said.

"I haven't betrayed Heart." Tachibana said.

"… Of course. Now it makes sense." I muttered. I looked to him. "006 told me what happened." I said.

"When the Roidmudes came back, our memories were intact. Heart…" Judge chuckled a bit. "had a change of heart. He recalled his time with the human known as Tomari Shinnosuke and realizing the war with humanity was in vain and will always be in vain, he proposed to instead focus efforts to befriend the human race." He said.

"I assume not all the Roidmudes bought it." I said.

"Only a quarter of our kind agreed with him. The others… They turned on him. It… It was hurtful to see many of our kind dying to that civil war. Heart fell along with his army. I was one of the few on his side who survived… But only because I chose to feign betrayal. I know the feeling of vengeance all too well. I figured if I bided my time… I could have wiped out those traitors. Those who fight for the Roidmudes, yet murder their own kind. From there, I'd create a new Roidmude world in honor of Heart. One where humans and Roidmudes can coexist." Tachibana said.

Just as Banno originally intended…

I stayed silent for a moment as Tachibana continued to speak.

"But it seems that's all in vain. I ask you now, as an ally, to help me save Fluttershy." Tachibana said.

"Wait, how do _you_ know Fluttershy?" I asked him.

"… After the battle, I was critically injured. I was able to get away with the help of our recreator." Tachibana said.

"Recreator?" I asked.

" **The genius who brought the Roidmudes and I back. Hence,** ** _Re_** **creator.** " Banno said.

"Thank you… He managed to get me away on an assignment to scout out a world he had selected. … That world is this very place we are standing on right now. This world would serve as a project of his. I don't know what it was, but given how he gave a huge talk of recreation, I would assume he will use the Roidmudes to destroy this world and recreate it anew." Tachibana looked away.

"Focus! Fluttershy! What does she have to do with this!?" I asked.

"As I said, I was injured, and I fell unconscious. When I came too, I was recovering in an animal shelter. A kind girl took me in…" Tachibana said.

"Fluttershy…" I muttered.

"Exactly. I visit her from time to time. Eventually I came across the Canterlot Police Department. When I arrived, they just had their chief of police retire. I was able to go in and use my template's identity to convince the others to have me replace them. Surprisingly, it was easy. I was in a good place to know when Roidmudes would randomly attack people and secretly capture them and reprogram them through this." Tachibana showed me an iPad.

" **So you were able to reset Roidmudes without my help?** " Banno asked.

"No. What I do is insert a command into the Roidmude: Protect Humanity. Unfortunately, I was only able to convert a few or so before all this happened." Tachibana said. I looked ahead of the road and thought back to what I said when I was with Wind Rider.

" _They're killer, time-stopping robots who disguise themselves as humans and plan secret revolutions and genocides… but there are Roidmudes who don't want to kill every human. You just have to find them. They're… diamonds in the rough._ "

That's when I looked at Tachibana.

"Aright. Let's go… partner." I said. He nodded and got into his car. We drove off, side by side, towards Canterlot Shopping Centre.

* * *

As Rainbow Dash and Applejack crash through the sheet of glass, they landed and saw Fluttershy tied to a large pillar of metal in the middle of the mall, just on a floor above them as Volt was by a computer attached to the pillar. Large screws were embedded into the sides of the pillar as an antenna pointed upwards, towards the glass ceiling of the mall.

"Fluttershy! Hang on!" Rainbow Dash ran to her.

"Wait! It could be a-" Before Applejack could warn her, there was a flash of light as time slowed down. A blur passed Applejack as she was knocked back in slow motion. Rainbow Dash turned around to see the Nerve Roidmude approach her. He chuckled.

"So, you can move during Slowdown? Perhaps you can provide a good challenge before Banno and his slave get here." He got into a karate stance as Rainbow Dash ran to him, throwing him a few punches. Nerve simply slapped the first few away, but was unable to get the third in time. He stumbled back. "No… You're even _faster_ … At last, a worthy opponent. Our battle will be legendary!" He simply flexed the upper portion on his hand towards himself.

Rainbow Dash leaped and gave Nerve a few kicks. Nerve was able to block them in time. As Rainbow Dash landed, she leaped in the air and did a spin kick. Nerve ducked down as she landed. Rainbow Dash hopped a little before giving Nerve a roundhouse kick. However Nerve sidestepped from that, jumped and did a tornado kick. However, Rainbow Dash blocked it with her arm.

Nerve stayed in mid-air as the two flung punches at each other. While Rainbow Dash only had one arm active for the punches, she managed to land more hits than Nerve could.

Eventually, Rainbow Dash punched Nerve square in the chest. There was a small, rainbow colored shockwave that exploded from her fist and expanded outwards. Nerve was knocked down as Rainbow Dash chuckled.

"That's what you get, you son of a-" Suddenly, Rainbow Dash's arms went limp. "H-huh!?" Rainbow Dash muttered. Nerve chuckled and got up.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Nerve. And as that name implies, the nerves in your arms have been rendered useless." He said. He turned around as Rainbow Dash ran to him, leaped in the air, and did a side kick. Nerve smirked and ducked underneath, only to uppercut her in the spine.

 **CRACK!**

The fist also created a small shockwave, though this time, it was golden colored. Rainbow Dash's body also had a similar shockwave emitted across her body in the form of cyan colored ripples all across her body. Rainbow Dash screamed out in pain as she flew in the air a few feet, then fell onto the ground where her impact cracked the floor tiles.

"Your spine's like bubble wrap. One well-placed blow and now I made you a cripple." Nerve laughed. Time resumed to normal as Rainbow Dash screamed out in pain. "But, I grow tired of you now… It was fun." He walked to her and flexed his fingers until he straightened his hand out to land a final blow.

 **BLAM!**

However, before he can land it, his face was kicked in. He fell down almost instantly as Applejack stood, her leg high in the air before putting it down. Nerve got up and noticed something. Red glass on the ground in the shape of his 'sunglasses'. He felt his face, and sure enough, Applejack had just kicked one of his eyes off.

" **YOU BITCH!** " He roared as he stomped forward and punched her in the chest. Applejack, however, took the blow and kicked him again. Nerve staggered. "H-how are you not affected?!" He asked. He turned to see Rainbow Dash get up, though she could barely stand on two legs without falling slightly. "And you! That blow should have paralyzed you for life!"

"Call it our determination!" Rainbow Dash said. She and Applejack charged in as Nerve slowed down the flow of time again, if only to get out of the way. Rainbow Dash got out of Applejack's way, but was unable to keep up with Nerve due to the injury she was given.

As Nerve got upstairs to where Fluttershy was, he saw Volt overlooking a large silver computer.

"How much longer until it's active?" Nerve asked.

"Not long. Now we just need to use the human for the conductor and we'll be able to create the portal." Volt said.

"Hmph…" Nerve pressed his hand onto the pillar. Soon, some of the electrical currents began to transfer into his hand.

"What are you doing!?" Volt asked.

"I'd rather use this power for my own benefit…" He said. Volt pointed his appendage towards Nerve.

"No. You had your fun. Now that you got your Super Evolution, it's time for you to stop acting as the leader and let the Roidmude King take over now!" Volt said.

"He'll be the next to be overthrown." Nerve chuckled as he let go of the pillar, then slowly walked over to Volt. Before Volt could even attack, Nerve grabbed him and tossed him over to the pillar. It shocked Volt so hard that his body overloaded and exploded. His core floating upwards as Nerve grabbed the pillar to amass the energy created from the shock. He laughed before turning around and firing a lightning bolt at the core, destroying it. As he pressed a few keys on the computer, he turned to Rainbow Dash and readied for round two as the machine hummed to life.

* * *

We drove down the streets as the street lights began to flicker on and off. Damn, they already started. I put my pedal to the metal and sped up while Tachibana did the same. That's when we noticed the sinkhole.

"Tachibana! Hop on!" I shouted to him. Tachibana nodded. He opened the door of his car and leaped out onto the Tridoron. Pulling onto the lever, I closed my eyes and prayed. As soon as I heard metallic clunking, I opened my eyes and noticed two giant go-karts attached to the side of the Tridoron, one red and the other blue. Tachibana was on the blue kart. "Oh thank God." I muttered.

These two were part of the Tridoron. The Ride Booster Set. They were basically add-ons to the Tridoron to make it a four-man ride. Two in the Tridoron, and one in each go-kart. It was also able to fly, which is what I intended for them to do. Hover blades built into them began to whir as the Tridoron lifted itself off and flew towards the shattered window.

I could feel the slowdown particles weighing me down. Something wasn't right. As I got in I saw-

No!

I saw Applejack in mid-flight, being knocked back to a window next to it, though thankfully, with the slowdown and heavy pressure, Applejack could bounce off the window and not get hurt. But I soon saw Rainbow Dash trying to fight Nerve, only for her to get jabbed in the neck and fall to the ground. He looked up to me and Tachibana.

"I've been waiting for you, Banno!" Nerve said. I froze as I saw the golden coloring on him. He's already achieved it… Super Evolution. "I took the pleasure of beating up your students… And in the process of executing another one." He pointed to Fluttershy as she was slowly electrocuted by the pillar. Her screams sent chills to not just my spine, but I presume Tachibana's.

I immediately fired upon Nerve. Yeah, the go-karts can also fire. However, Nerve simply blocked the shots with his bare hands as I saw electricity bounce from his palm and break apart the blasts.

"Foolish…" He chuckled. Tachibana could only look at Fluttershy for so much before he jumped off the Ride Booster and ran off. However, Tachibana was punched in the gut. I had enough to.

"Henshin!" I shouted as I leaped down and transformed into Gold Drive. Banno began a fist fight with Nerve. While he managed to get a few blows in, Nerve didn't manage to make my body seize up like he did before. Banno continued to punch Nerve… Though then Nerve charged up his punch with a lot of electrical energy. Much like the battle with Judge and the battle with Volt, Banno began to freeze up as I saw the HUD in my helmet screw up. Not being able to move, the armor disappeared as I soon felt the seizure-inducing punches of Nerve.

Nerve turned around, only to see that Tachibana was at the pillar already.

"Fluttershy! Hang on!" Tachibana said as he went to work on the computer.

"Don't you dare!" Nerve ran to attack Tachibana. Tachibana transformed into his Roidmude form and fired his taser at Nerve. Nerve merely used the tasers as a rope to pull in Tachibana and punch him in the face. He was knocked down as I ran to pull Nerve away, though my legs soon cramped.

"GO!" I shouted. Tachibana ran off, though before he could even reach the computers, Nerve fired a lightning bolt at the computer, destroying it in the process. Tachibana shielded his eyes from the sparks that emitted from the computer. When he looked, he slammed his hand on the now inactive computer. He turned to see the electricity coursing through Fluttershy glow hot white. There wasn't much time now.

He ran over and stabbed the pillar with his kendo stick, right to where Fluttershy was chained. He then pulled Fluttershy out. Before he could get out, the pillar exploded with electricity and knocked him back, turning him back to his human form. Nerve shielded his eyes from the explosion, though it was enough to knock him back, cancelling his slow down. Fluttershy slowly got up and saw Tachibana on the ground.

"Tachibana!" She shouted as she ran over to him. I knew she was simply a sitting duck, so I began to attack Nerve, forcing him to focus his fighting on me.

"Fluttershy…" Tachibana said. "You're okay…"

"Of course I am…" She said.

"Good… I'm glad… Please…" He tried to lift his hand to touch Fluttershy's cheek. "Don't let this day cloud your mind… Your heart may want revenge, but… Vengeance…" He chuckled. "Vengeance doesn't fit you…" He said.

"Tachibana… You're going to be okay, right?" She asked him. Tachibana seemed to ignore her, however.

"… Heart… Was this what you felt when you befriended the Kamen Rider? If so… It feels… nice…" His voice reduced to a mere whisper before his body gave out. His entire body turned into a rusty color before crumbling into dust, his core doing the same just after.

"Tachibana? T-tachibana?" Fluttershy began to tear up. I was able to hold off Nerve enough for that to happen, however, after I was knocked back by another punch, Nerve turned to Fluttershy. He took out his radio.

"071, 093, get up here!" Nerve said. All he could hear is snarling and metal being torn apart. "Hello? Anyone there?" He said before he heard a loud roar and soon feedback. "Gah! Fine! I'll kill you all myself! The pillar's charged up enough to give me the power I need… I will love to read the headlines for this… Tragedy strikes Canterlot as freak electrical accident kills thousands!" Nerve laughed. I gripped my fists.Enough was enough.

"This _won't_ be a tragedy." I spoke up. "This _won't_ be an accident. This will be what happens when you become so full of yourself that you claim yourself to be a god, when you are, in fact, nothing more than a robot." Nerve turned around.

"What did you say?!" Nerve asked. I smirked.

"You monsters wield more power than most armies, and you're audacious enough to have more. You monsters cling to this power in the name of revolution, to ensure that we become your eternal slaves, and yet, what did we just see? One of your kind sacrificing himself to save the life of one of _our_ kind. Roidmudes are supposed to be the salvation of humanity, yet I have witnessed _none_ of that from you." I suddenly remembered another memory of mine… Though I was quick to deduce that it wasn't mine as I remembered walking with a boy across an underground hallway overfilled with vines. No doubt I was remembering Ryoma's chat with Kouta, A.K.A. Kamen Rider Gaim.

In particular, I remembered one line from this chat, from Ryoma himself:

" _If you could find the will to be ruthless, then you'd be freed from all your stress in an instant._ "

Ruthless. My breathing stilled to a point where it could even be considered creepy. I could only help but stare coldly at Nerve. Even Banno seemed to notice as he chuckled.

"And thus… I shall become your Grim Reaper. Let's go, Banno."

" **There's some fire in your eyes! Alright,** ** _start my engine!_** "

I turned the ignition and shouted out:

"HENSHIN"

Instantly, I transformed into Gold Drive. Banno began to throw punches at Nerve again. However, as Nerve gave me an electrical punch, Banno switched to me while I grabbed a Shift Car. Oddly enough, it was a formula-one car with a gas nozzle on it. Knowing what it was, I plugged it into the Shift Brace.

Two small, orange, wrist-sized tires with silver circles on them flew towards me and clicked onto my wrists. As Nerve moved to attack me, I punched with both fists, the wheels spinning around and creating a flame around the wrists as they connected. However, I began to feel my muscles seize up again, so I turned the ignition again.

Banno took over as he swapped out the Shift Cars. Keeping with the theme, I gave him a green formula-one Shift Car. One of the orange tires flew off and in its place was a green one with a silver metal plate on it. Nerve fired a shot of electricity as Banno blocked it with the tire. The square then lifted itself like a floor lift and pushed Nerve off. Banno's arm began to freeze up from the electricity coursing through the arm, so with his other arm, he switched.

I took over as I got a yellow F1 Shift Car this time around. Plugging it in, the other orange tire was replaced with a yellow one, this time having two long metal prongs. As Nerve tried to punch, I put his arm in between the prongs and the wheel twisted itself. With one spin, it tore Nerve's arm off. He backed away and screamed out. He created a new arm that was made of pure electricity and punched me. I backed away as both my HUD and my body began to freeze. My hand was on the ignition and I ended up turning it multiple times.

" **Kelly! This might be dangerous!** " Banno said. My visor flashed from red to white, red to white, red to white, until it finally settled on a color. A series of rings bordering out from the center like a bullseye, alternating between red and black. Normally, this visor would be what happened when Krim took over for Shinnosuke in their Type Tridoron form. However, this was different.

A flurry of Shift Cars drove out and began attacking Nerve. I saw fire, spikes, shurikens, bars, and coins all fire out towards Nerve. I ran in… Or rather, Banno ran in. I was confused as to who was fighting, as both of us could feel our movement. Banno would throw a punch, I would throw a kick, he would jump, and I would dodge. It was as if we shared the same body, though trying to control it proved to be difficult. Nerve couldn't predict our movement, so that was a plus.

However, after a few moments of fighting, Banno and I were able to control my body. I controlled one half and Banno controlled the other. We stood as I used my hand to point to Nerve.

" **Now, count up your crimes!** " We said as Banno pressed on the red button on the Shift Brace.

" **THE FINISHER! MANTARN... JACKY... SPARNER! FULL... THROTTLE!** " The orange, green, and yellow tires all flew to me, attaching themselves to the wrists and ankles. I punched the ground as it created a vortex of fire and heat, surrounding the Roidmude. We jumped up and used the floor lift to push ourselves across from one wall of fire to the other side, all while using the wrench on our foot to act as a blade and slashing the Nerve Roidmude. We bounced across the walls several times, all while slashing away at the Roidmude.

With the twenty fifth slash, Nerve stumbled back.

"You… You will die!" He held up his hands and created a large electrical sphere. On that time, the floor lift pressed against the floor and lifted us up into the air. The tires rearranged themselves so that all four of them fitted onto my right leg. I extended the leg out as we dove down onto Nerve. The wheels spun around and created a large, golden aura of the tires around the leg, complete with a huge burst of fire that destroyed the electricity. Eventually, it turned into a giant golden drill that impaled itself into Nerve's chest and broke through his body.

As we landed, Nerve simply stumbled over to the pillar despite having a large hole in his chest.

"No… I'm… I'm supposed to be powerful! Watch… Watch as I amass a great power! More powerful than Super Evolu-" Just then, a tentacle came out from Banno's belt and stabbed the Roidmude right through, grasping onto his core.

" **Shut up.** " We both said as the coreless body dropped onto the pillar and exploded into a column of fire that busted through the ceiling. We created a golden shield to block any heat from roasting the girls, though letting go of the core in the process. Though, considering how much damage it took, we were pretty sure that Nerve would die soon.

I looked over to the girls as the Driver gave out and cancelled the transformation. My entire body felt numb and tired. I fell onto the floor, with the last thing I heard being sirens.

* * *

006 floated out of the mall as the flame erupted from its roof. The core sparked a bit and seemed like it would blow up, however, it soon came into a field of white sparkling lights. The core looked and saw that it was coming from a hand. A hand of someone he recognized all too much. Before he could react, the person took out what looked to be a bulky iPhone and the core was sucked into the screen.

The person looked at the screen as the numbers **006** lit up in a display of a grid arranged to be like a phone, though with only four of the numbers lit.

"You did good, 006, but now your time's up." The person looked as the pillar faded away. "… Gold Drive. This world will become your grave." He walked away from the rooftop he was on soon afterwards.

* * *

 _Beep… Beep… Beep…_

My eyes opened up as I saw a familiar face in front of me.

"So, how was your adventure, m'dear?" I tried to get up and have my hands wring Niko's neck, but I couldn't even budge my body. "Quite an experience, don't you think?" He asked.

"You…" I growled. "You had something to do with the Roidmudes coming back, didn't you?" I asked him. He shook his head.

"No. The Roidmudes were here before I sent you _or_ Ross there." He said.

"H-huh?" I asked. Niko smirked and walked towards the window. I could see that he wasn't wearing his business suit or his fedora. Rather, he wore a brown leather jacket with a black waistcoat and a white shirt underneath and black pants. On his head was his fedora, but instead of it being white, it was now black with a white felt ring around it. Leather straps wrapped around his legs, while the bulge on the sleeves of the jacket imply that there were straps on his arms as well. What I noticed was on his jacket, there was a shield stitched onto the sleeve, and on that shield was a side view of the head of a unicorn.

"You think it was by chance that you ended up in the same place as the Roidmudes or that I had a hand in it? No. I was assigned to take care of this world by a higher power. This higher power insisted I give the belts to people who were willing to put them on. Guess what category _you_ fell in." He smirked and looked at me, placing his hand on my shoulder.

"See, you, Ross, and I all fall in that category. The category of people who are willing to abandon their old lives, even their old _identities,_ in order to be a part of something bigger. To make a change. To be a _hero_. To be Displaced. You took the bait I had set and ate it gloriously. And I couldn't have been prouder of the decision I have made. You murdered more Roidmudes than I can count. It was good that I gave you your little buddy over there. Pretty sure if you went with that dopey fruit cutting belt thing, you'd be dead on your first week."

Wait, he falls in the category? Guess that explains his weird cowboy unicorn brigade geddup.

"I can't wait to see how you and Ross will protect this world from the Roidmudes to come. Until then, I'll take my leave." He said. I raised my hand.

"Wait! That… That higher power… Who is he?" I asked.

" _She_ … And truth be told, I don't even know. Creepy bitch. I told her about you and she just went to see what you were up to. Chances are you met her before." He smirked as he left the room. I met her before? Who? My mind began to spin itself into circles trying to figure out the answer. That's when Soarin went into the room.

"Silverbolt! Thank God you're alright!" Soarin said.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Part of the centre blew up and we found you and some girls injured. Don't worry. They're surprisingly stable. It's a miracle to say the least. However, at least two of them are injured to an extent where they won't be walking any time soon… And…" Soarin hesitated to finish his sentence.

"Tachibana died." I said. Soarin nodded.

"Or at least, that's what one of the girls said. We didn't find his body, however." He said. I looked away and frowned. "B-but good news! I'm now the chief of police! Isn't that cool!?" Soarin said. I sighed.

"How many people died yesterday?" I asked.

"Huh?" Soarin asked.

"How many people died in the attack at the school?" I asked.

"… Roughly eighteen students." He pulled up a chair and sat down next to me. "I know how hard it must be. To feel like you could have saved more people. It's… It's the reason I became a cop." He took a few moments to muster himself. "I know you might be busy with your teaching, but if you have some spare time, maybe you can use that Golden Drive identity to help us with some cases. … I'll let you think about it." He said. Just as he was about to walk off, I spoke up.

"Sign me up. I'm going to help you and everyone else. For that's what a Kamen Rider is." I said.

"… What's a Kamen Rider?" Soarin' asked.

"I mean Golden Drive… heh." I chuckled. I forgot that Kamen Rider is a seldom used term in this place.

"Glad to hear it. I have your number if I need anything, alright?" He asked. I nodded. He smiled and left. After a moment of silence, I spoke up.

"So, what happened?" I asked Banno. "With that whole fused body thing."

" **It's been too long since I read over Krim's works, but it appears to be a secret feature in Type Tridoron. Much like how a Roidmude needs to tap into a certain emotion to evolve, Drive must tap into an emotion to change forms.** " I nodded and knew exactly what he spoke about. " **In our case, you had to tap into** ** _my_** **emotions. You had to feel and sync with my cruelty in order to activate that power. That's the only way we can activate Type Overdrive.** "

I sat and pondered, remembering all the moments Banno's cruelty shined.

" ** _Starting today, there will be a return! The return of Tenjuro Banno! Humanity will cower before my feet! Oppressors will fall before my might!_** "

" ** _So, how shall we demonstrate the difference between alternating currents and direct currents? I was considering purchasing a cattle prod and teaching the students first hand._** "

" ** _I'm afraid to say that they, along with you, are_** **my** ** _toys to do what I want._** "

" ** _GWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You idiot! It's your funeral!_** "

But perhaps the most scary thing I remembered was when we fought Judge and we had to free Rainbow Dash… And our solution was to hit her bracelet even though there was a good chance we'd chop off her arm.

" ** _Great minds think alike! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!_** "

I muttered out: "I'll never be like you." I said.

" **No. You** ** _will_** **be like me. When we bonded, I could feel your emotions. That potential for cruelty… Your ruthlessness. There was only one other person in my life who had that same drive. A scientist by the name of Ryoma Sengoku.** " My blood chilled. " **Of course, you looking like him and creating a LockVehicle were indicators of that as well, but up until that point, I didn't realize that you could be so much like him…** " I couldn't even say anything.

" **Eventually, all it would take is one little push to make you** ** _exactly_** **like him… And perhaps you can see my ambitions eye to eye.** " Banno said.

"No… I won't be like him. I won't be like _you_. And I won't _ever_ have the ambition to take over the world and subject humanity to my rule." I said as I gripped the sheets on my hospital bed.

" **Hmph… Just you wait… I'll find a way out of this cage, take over your small, feeble mind, and make you suffer…** " Banno said.

A small, feeble mind? It's true that I'm not the brightest bulb in the world. I only have scant memories of Ryoma's works to rely on whereas Banno could just use his brilliant light to defeat me… Which is why I'll focus all of my power to snuff it out. His egotism is not misplaced. When he fights, he is a huge threat that no one can hope to overcome… but sideswipe him with a development that he cannot comprehend, and any semblance of power that he has will simply wash away.

Of course, he won't realize it at first. He'll cling onto the fleeting hope that he'll take over this world with an iron fist. But I won't let him… I'll work on a Driver that he has never seen before… And when the Roidmudes fall and it comes down to me and Banno, he will know that he'll be walking into his own demise before I can even transform.

This is the beginning of the end, Banno. And I can't wait to watch you burn.

* * *

"I apologize, Headmaster…" Celestia hung her head as she stood at the office of the Public School Board.

"There's nothing for you to apologize for." The headmaster's voice was dulled and dry. His hand hovered over the handle of a coffee mug. "No one could have prepared for a sudden attack like that."

"No… It's not just that. Over the past month, my students have been hurt by these monsters, even _killed_. I should take full responsibility for not being able to stop it." She said.

"If that is what you wish, then you may bare that mistake on your shoulders for the rest of your life. However, _that_ shall be your punishment." He took out an iPad and looked over the two fights between Kelly and the Roidmudes at the school. "Instead of seeking to punish yourself, instead seek to find a way to stop this from happening. If I may make such a suggestion." He began to play another video and turned the iPad towards Celestia for her to see.

"I suggest you enroll this kid into your school." He said as Celestia saw the footage of Ross fighting the Roidmudes at the shop on the night he first entered this world.

"Huh? Why?" Celestia stared wide-eyed as she saw the boy fighting the robotic monsters.

"… Let's just say I…" He took his time to lift the coffee mug and sipped from it. "I have a hunch."

* * *

Rain stormed down hard as Ross sat underneath a bridge. He trembled and held to his stomach. His Aura was able to block the full force of the Tridoron, but it took all of it just to soften the blow. What would have been a fatal hit was now a punch to the gut. A really _painful_ punch to the gut.

He groaned and tried to keep the pain from overwhelming him, he felt like he could succumb to the pain and scream out any moment.

"Is someone there?" Ross heard the voice of a girl and he turned to see who it was. He was stunned to see a beautiful girl holding an umbrella while standing underneath a street light, as if a light from heaven was shining down and presenting him an angel.

He eyed the girl in the white dress. Her skin was a soft orange and her hair a mixture of red and yellow. Overall, her body looked like...

That of a setting sun.

 **GOLDEN DRIVE ARC: END**


	7. Interlude

_I want to be strong._

"Reports say that there's some wild animal out in the downtown area." Soarin' said as we drove down the streets near the Canterlot Shopping Centre in the middle of the night. There had been heavy construction going on to fill in the sinkhole and the mall. I sighed and looked out for anything out of the ordinary. That's when I saw something.

A severed arm.

"Stop!" I said to Soarin'. He stopped the car and we got out. I looked at the severed arm closely. It was… metallic. Silver. _Robotic_.

" **A Roidmude?** " Banno asked. We heard trash cans being tossed down as Soarin' got his gun out.

"Freeze!" Soarin' shouted. A man walked out… Or rather, he limped out. He straggled out like a zombie, his clothes ripped, and one of his eyes was glowing a dark red. I noticed his arm was replaced by a large, black arm with claws on the end.

"I don't think he's intent on freezing." I heard the man snarl out. As he looked at us, he roared and his body exploded in a cloud of dark smoke. When the smoke cleared, I could see that it was a Roidmude… However, his head was replaced with that of a wolf's, white bone-like spikes jutted out of arms and legs, while the wolf's face was hidden by a mask with thin red lines going in a pattern and bright orange eyes. I could see the number plate on the Roidmude: 093.

"Get down!" I shouted before the Roidmude shot out slowdown particles. Both me and Soarin' managed to get down okay.

"So this is Slowdown, huh?" Soarin' said. I nodded.

"Yeah. Keep that Shift Car close to you, got it?" I looked to Soarin's belt as it on the side, there was a metal case which had three slots for a Shift Car to go in, one of them being filled by the police Shift Car, Justice Hunter.

"Got it! I'll cover you!" Soarin' got out his gun and fired at the Roidmude. He blocked the fire as I ran in. My hand hovered over the ignition. I thought back to the conversation I had with Banno. No. Not gonna risk letting Banno lose just for one feral Roidmude. I punched the monster in the face, then somersaulted for a kick.

"Alright! Go, Monster!" I shouted as I took out a Shift Car from my own case and threw it at the Roidmude. Massive Monster jumped up and crashed down onto the Roidmude, creating aural fangs that crunched the Roidmude. However, the Roidmude slashed them away, along with the Shift Car. The bullets that Soarin' fired seemed to work on him, however. The Roidmude groaned and I could see some sort of dark smoke excrete from what were obviously wounds.

However, we didn't seem to hurt him enough. The Roidmude clawed at me and knocked me down. I got up, though the pain from the slash was too much.

" **Again with this 'I don't wanna fight' nonsense? You're gonna die pretty quickly.** " Banno said. I struggled to get up. The Roidmude was about to attack me when I suddenly heard something that shouldn't have been possible.

" **TURN! DRIFT KAITEN!** " The announcement was followed by a familiar sounding series of slashes against the Roidmude's back, causing a small shower of black sparks. The Roidmude fell forward from the surprise attack, revealing a black figure with a hooded jacket. Her jacket was red, short sleeved, and appeared to be armored. The armor design was one Banno and I easily recognized, even if it was only on the jacket. The tire design on the left shoulder and the face on the helmet just drove the image home. The only immediate strange thing was the thin, curved horn on the face.

Under the jacket was a black form with a white skeleton design on it. The skeleton pattern was made of various types of weapons, from the shotgun profiles on the thighs to the spears on the forearms. On the chest was a faded green crosshair design. On her waist was a big gold thing that looked like a Driver, but not one I'd seen. I remember bits about the Kamen Rider after Drive, and this looked like it had elements of that Rider's belt, namely the handle on its owner's right side and the eye shaped object in it. There was a protrusion on the left side that looked like a scythe blade. The middle had some familiar looking parts I couldn't quite place though.

The Roidmude growled as it got back up, turning around to face its assailant, along with the Break Gunner, Lupin Gunner, Blade Gunner, Zenrin Shooter, and Door Gun. All five firearms were just floating in front of the new Rider, who seemed unaffected by the slowdown.

"What will you do, monster?" the new Rider spoke. "Will you fight me and my friends, or will you run and hide?" I could tell, even as far away as I was, that her voice had a tone of horror to it. Horror that wasn't born of fear, anger, or hatred, but something else. And much to both my surprise and Soarin's, 093 ran away, a tail it now had between its legs. The slowdown also came to an end. I couldn't let the strange Roidmude get away, but I didn't want to henshin in order to chase it myself, so I sent Dimension Cab after it.

I made my way up to the strange character with the Drive hoodie. "Who are you?"

She said nothing, but rather backed up, along with almost every weapon from Kamen Rider Drive, allowing a motorcycle to come out of the ground. She got on the motorcycle before answering. "Kamen Rider Buki." Without a sound, she sped off, the bike floating with no apparent means of flight. She was soon over the speed limit and going through red lights, literally. She looked like she was just passing right through the traffic lights.

"What do you think that was about, Banno?" I asked my belt. I didn't get an immediate answer and looked down at him. "Banno?" The display was covered in gold static and digital malfunction sounds were coming from him. "Oh thank God…" I muttered before Banno activated again.

" **My apologies, I was just fuming over that Rider having those weapons and technology… Just who is she!?** " He asked.

"An ally." Soarin' said. "She helped fight that monster, right I mean, yeah, she totally just broke the traffic law, but really? She's a valuable ally right now." He asked. I nodded.

"Alright, let's follow the Roidmude." I said. I looked at the Tridoron. Seemed to be the right size to run over the monster if I encountered him again. I ran back to the Tridoron and drove off, Soarin' following me.

* * *

 _I want to be feared._

In the halls of a burned down mansion, a dozen of Roidmudes stood around. Some sat in chairs while others were chatting among themselves.

"Finally!" A Bat-Type Roidmude with the numbering of 106 said.

"Aaargh, what are you so happy about?" A red Roidmude with light blue swirls covered all around him replied.

"006 finally kicked the bucket!" 106 said. The Advanced Roidmude chuckled.

"Wow, good news indeed." He said.

"It's even better, Tornado! 007's going to lead the next Roidmude legion! The Fusion Roidmudes! I'm going to be a part of it!" The low-class Roidmude cheered.

"Unfortunately…" The two Roidmudes turned to see a young adult. Despite his youthful age, his appearance looked rather sickly and skinny. His long black hair was so parted, it felt like he hadn't cleaned it in over a year. It didn't quite help that the clothing he had was quite literally a hospital gown. "This body I've synchronized with is going to take a while to… adjust." He said.

"S-synchronized? What happened to Fusion?" 106 asked.

"If I were to find a human host for a Fusion, I might end up with a completely different form. If I am to have a chance against Banno and his puppet, I have to retain my original form. The Roidmude King said that this body would help fine tune that form's power…" He said.

"The Roidmude King's lying! That body is so weak! Why did you even pick a sick person from a hospital?" 106 asked.

"Hey!" A woman's voice barked, grabbing the Roidmudes' attention. She was completely hidden in shadows. "Don't you _dare_ insult our lord like that." She said.

"What's _she_ doing here?" Tornado asked.

"That's what I'm here to tell you, Tornado." 007 said. "Since I'm not going, _you're_ gonna lead the new wave of Roidmudes in my place." As he said that, several Roidmudes marched out behind 007. They were outfitted with a brown cape that looked similarly to a cockroach's shell. A few have a large red claw while the others had scythes.

"The Reaper Legion? So… that means…" Tornado muttered.

"Exactly. 006's Grim Reaper turned traitor. Ergo, The Roidmude King saw fit to send _her_ to take his place." He said.

"She can send them to their deaths. I'm not gonna carry that burden." Tornado turned around. "You hear that, mam? You're the leader now." He said.

"106, you may follow Tornado if you wish." 007 said. "If you're _that_ eager to fight, then go ahead." He said.

"Yes! Thank you!" 106 said. 007 walked away as 106 held up a dark red Shift Car that was shaped like a bat.

"So even 007 realized how dumb Fusion is." Tornado said.

"What are talking about?" 106 asked.

"It's a counterproductive means to evolve. Ever wonder why so few Roidmudes ever considered using it? It's hard to find a human with a dark enough heart to fuse with. Especially in the world we're invading. And then you end up wasting your Viral Core if you get split up. Now, an _Advanced_ Roidmude form is the way to go… All you have to do is fulfill whatever human emotion fills you up and BOOM! Golden body all around." Tornado said.

"Well you know what?! I'll find a human with a heart dark enough to enable my evolution and I'll show you that Fusion is superior to Advanced!" 106 said as he stormed off.

"Hmph, challenge accepted." Tornado said. As he was about to leave, the woman spoke up again.

"Tornado, if we end up crossing paths again," she began to growl as Tornado could hear something sizzle. "I prefer that you call me _sir_."

* * *

 _I want to be powerful._

We followed the monster over to the construction site of the mall, right where the cement had been put into the sinkhole. As the monster turned to me, I revved up the Tridoron and tried to run down the Roidmude, only for him to slash at the hood, causing it to flip over and crash on its top. I struggled to get out as the monster slowly came to me, not even minding the bullet shots that attacked him.

There were actually a lot of bullets. Way more than all the guns in Drive could fire together. As I wormed my way out of the Tridoron, I saw Buki, though now she was wearing a jacket and had a face like DekaRed. In her hand was D-Sword Vega, and floating around her was every single gun from the Dekarangers' arsenal, all pointed at the Roidmude, which thankfully was not paying attention to me. Again.

Once again, I heard Banno fuming. After he managed to calm down a bit, he spoke up. " **Where is she getting these weapons from? And how is she making them float like that?** "

"I have no idea, Banno" I said. "But I'm starting to get the odd feeling it's not science."

The guns hovered off after the odd Roidmude and Buki stopped by me. "Are you just going to lay there on the floor, or are you going to help me and my friends?" She never looked in my direction, but it was clear she was talking to me.

"What?"

"Does it feel good to mope there when you have the means to fight? Or are you simply afraid to lose yourself?" I couldn't bring myself to answer her. "I'm sure you'll find your fight soon enough." She pointed D-Sword Vega at the Roidmude and jumped. It looked like the sword was pulling her through the air towards the Roidmude.

As Buki fought the Roidmude, I let my thoughts work. Every time I had used the henshin before, I had run the risks I was now aware of. Even after discovering Gold Conversion and switching control of my body with Banno, I kept fighting. In a moment of peace, I realized it was my ruthless fight with Nerve that was, well, getting on my nerves.

I had to fight. I also had to control my ruthlessness. I could fight without stress with the ruthlessness at my side, and as long as I kept it there only in the fights.

My breakthrough came just in time, as I saw Buki flying backwards across my field of vision before she crashed into a generator. Her weapons followed soon after. Before I knew what I was doing, I was up on my feet and my hand was on the ignition.

"Henshin!" I turned the ignition and became Gold Drive. I used Gold Conversion once to summon the Signal Axe and again to summon the Break Gunner. Banno was in control and he charged in, knuckle gun firing at the Roidmude. Black sparks came from the savage machine from each shot, and more came from an upward axe slash. Banno kept at it for a full minute before I got slashed and knocked back, stopping next to Buki.

"You don't hunt werewolves with those weapons," she said. "a rifle is much better."

" **I don't have a rifle.** " Banno said.

"Yes you do." Buki took the weapons out of my hands, and before Banno could get them back, she had plugged the Brake Gunner's barrel into the base of the Signal Axe's handle, aimed, and fired a shot at the Roidmude. The shot was powerful and knocked the Roidmude on its back, where it spasmed a bit.

Banno grabbed the rifle with my hands and hit the Advanced Ignition, relinquishing control to me. I was about to charge in with my axe rifle (I think I understand why Ross likes his scythe so much now) when I heard something from Buki. I looked over as she opened her Driver like the DecaDriver and pulled out the eye-like thing in it, causing her DekaRed jacket and face to disappear, along with all the weapons she had. Her Driver gave off an eerie sound after the eye was removed. I saw that the weapon skeleton pattern in its entirety was made of weapons, and under where the DekaRed and Drive faces originally were was a silver mesh that looked like a fencer's mask, slightly recessed into the helmet.

She pulled out another mechanical eye thing, colored red, blue, yellow, green, black, gold, and silver, pressed a button on the side, flipping the purple iris inside it to a purple iris with a white Go-Onger logo over it. She set it into the Driver and closed the sides, causing it to chant " **target in sight** " in a tone that put me on edge. A silver ghost-like jacket flew out of the belt and hovered behind Buki before she pulled out the handle on her right and pushed it back in. As the belt announced " **Go-Onger!** ", I could hear a revving engine sound effect and the sound of a firey explosion. The silver jacket set itself on Buki, and a face flipped up, along with a scythe blade-like horn. The face was that of Go-On Silver's helmet.

" **You changed jackets?** " Banno asked. " **Is that all you can do?** "

"No." Buki said before pressing down on the lever on the left side of her Driver, causing numerous balls of light to come out of the Driver, all of which turned into the Go-Onger's weapons. "Super Highway Buster, please." At her polite order, five unique weapons flew together, forming the team cannon she asked for. "Everyone else, please go support our Roidmude friend. We need him standing up."

The weapons that weren't part of the Super Highway Buster went out to the Roidmude and picked it up. It was clearly dazed, but was quickly recovering.

"Do you have a plan?" I asked Buki. Clearly, she had stuff going on in her head.

"Use these." Buki held up Rumble Dump and Signal Magarl with one hand.

" **How did you get those?** " Banno asked.

"I found them." Buki tossed the little vehicles up into the air, and they started driving along their little roads, slotting themselves into the rifle. Rumble Dump went to the Break Gunner and Magarl went to the Signal Axe. I pressed the button on the axe's handle.

" **Wait for it!** " Oh yeah, this one had a delay to it. I looked at the Roidmude, back on its feet and ready to attack once again.

I looked over at Buki and I saw her pull out and push in the violet handle, causing the Driver to announce " **Go-Onger, Omega Drive!** ", which was followed by her being pulled forward by the Super Highway Buster, and the uncombined weapons made her let go of the giant blaster, then made her move until she was standing on the Road Saber. The Super Highway Buster also aimed itself away from the Roidmude.

" **Go for it!** " I turned my attention back to the Roidmude and pulled the Break Gunner's trigger. A yellow drill formed at the end of the rifle's barrel, quickly growing to two feet wide before launching. A moment later, the Super Highway Buster fired on its own, the shot launching Buki by her foot, sending her into a Rider Kick. Her foot flew into the back of the drill, sending it off course and underground, pulling her with it.

The Roidmude took advantage of my distracted gaze to run away. It was fast and I lost sight of it. " **Good job, Kelly. You let 093 get away. Good job.** " Banno's sarcasm was not lost on me, and I could just imagine a slow clap accompanying his remarks.

I heard something crash from further inside the construction site and looked in its direction. I saw the Roidmude get launched into the air, propelled by the drill, Buki still attached to it, though now in a proper kick pose. I followed her arc, which was coming right my way. I dove to the side seconds before impact, the Roidmude exploding from the force of the drill kick, the black and red 093 core weakly floating off. I hit it with a shot from the rifle, causing it to blow up into a puff of black smoke.

"Well, that happened..." I remarked just as my time ran out and the armor went away. "So, can I see who you are under that armor?"

"Do you like having night terrors? Weeks of insomnia? Hearing things that are and are not there?" Buki asked me.

"No. Nobody likes having those things."

"Then I bid you adieu. Spirit!" Buki's bike flew down next to her, she got on it, and then drove into the ground, like she was a ghost.

When Soarin' caught up to Banno and me, I was still staring at the ground where Buki disappeared. Banno's display was blank, probably because he was in a similar mental state as me: confused, perplexed, and dumbfounded.

"This night's just getting weirder and weirder..." Soarin' said. I slowly turned around to see Soarin' hold a rifle. "Sorry I took a while to get here, but I noticed something as we were leaving the scene. Seemed those Roidmudes were in possession of this. It's not a gun we recognize." Soarin' said. I inspected the rifle... It looked like an assault rifle from Halo. However, I had a question unrelated to that one... I looked back to the ground where Kamen Rider Buki went in.

Was _she_ the higher up that Niko talked of?

* * *

Ross slept peacefully in a bed as the girl who found him gently brushed his hair. She smirked. He would definitely be a useful asset for her ambition.

"Sunset, it's time for bed!" The girl heard her mother call to her.

"In a minute, mom!" Sunset shouted to her. She left Ross to rest as she went to her room.

Entering the room, Sunset looked at the night sky. Sure enough, the moon was in prime position. She had waited a while for this time. She took out a suitcase from under her bed, making sure everything was ready for tomorrow. As she spotted her burglar clothes, she hid them under the bed.

Sunset Shimmer looked at herself in the mirror. She closed her eyes and remembered when she was in Canterlot, looking at a similar mirror. In it, it showed her as a winged unicorn with immense power. She slightly touched the mirror and smiled as she muttered out…

"I want to be strong... I want to be feared... I want to be powerful."


End file.
